Birds of a Feather Share a Berth Together
by Auto School Dropout
Summary: Amira considers herself to be a classy Iaconian Escort who lives a life of luxury. Freefire, on the other hand, is a pleasure bot from Kaon who struggles to make ends meet. When a deadly problem arises, two bots with little in common must come together to help each other get out alive or risk loosing everything.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: 'Sup guys! Auto here. And here we have the first chapter of Ninja and I's story! This chapter will focus on meeting Freefire, while the next will be focused on Amira. We plan to update bi-monthly and see how it goes from there. So buckle up and enjoy the ride! -Rock 'n' Roll out, Auto**

 _ **So this chapter was written by Ninja, and the next will be by Auto. After that the story will a callaboration of the two authors styles**_

 _ **disclaimer: The authors of this story do not own Transformers. They are not making any money off of this. It is intended for entertainment purposes ONLY. Freefire is the work of Ninja School Dropout. Amira is the work of Autobotschic.**_

 **Now that we got that out of the way, please enjoy. =D  
**

* * *

When Freefire's processor whirred to life, he didn't want to online his optics. The berth he was on made him feel like he was in the Well of All Sparks floating among the sparks of the uncreated. Unfortunately, he was cruelly ripped away from that sensation by a harsh elbow to the side. Freefire grunted as he landed on the cold hard metal that made up the floor of the immaculate building. With a grunt he sat up and glared at the huge red mech. "Sentinel!" He whimpered. "I was recharging."

The huge red mech's frame rumbled as he laughed. "You were most definitely online. It is no use faking just so you can keep you're dirty frame on my berth." Sentinel grunted using his servo to wipe away the invisible filth from his berth.

Freefire huffed. "So?"

"So, I'm going to have to have it disinfected while I'm gone." Sentinel grunted, leaning his helm back on his berth.

Freefire rolled his optics. "Where's the pay?"

"I have a favor." Sentinel sat up with a smirk. "Since you brought up the pay."

"Where's the pay, Old Oaf." Freefire growled. This wouldn't be the first time he did a job and the bot refused to pay him without a fight.

Sentinel growled. "I said I had a favor."

"I don't want anything to do with your favor. I want my pay." Freefire grumbled as he stood up off the ground.

"You won't get it unless you accept the favor. In fact, if you do accept it, your pay just might double."

Freefire allowed a grin to spread across his face. Double pay? That might keep him from having to do this again for a while. "Keep going."

"Of course, it will include leaving Kaon, for a short time anyways."

"How short?" Freefire's optics narrowed.

"An orn or two."

"What exactly am I going to be doing?" Freefire crossed his arms over his chest.

"As Prime I have certain, social obligations." The huge red mech started. He slowly stood up, and walked over to Freefire. "One of which includes going to social gatherings. Unfortunately, my usual escort seems to be, well, offline."

"Why Sentinel," Freefire snorted, "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were asking little old me out on a date."

Sentinel's face morphed into annoyance. "Good thing you don't then."

"Ouch." Freefire shrugged. "I guess I'll do it, but I want double pay, plus an escort service fee."

"Fine." Sentinel sat back down on the berth. "Be gone." Sentinel sighed, shooing Freefire away.

Freefire smirked as he walked out of the room. He glanced over to one of the guards. "You were here last night?"

The guard glanced over to him, and nodded.

"How thin are these walls?"

"Very."

Freefire smiled. "Tell me, did I make him scream?" The guard turned away from Freefire. Freefire laughed. "I totally made him scream." He walked down the hall, with a skip in his step. When Freefire exited the building he snorted at the crumbling outside. It was hard to imagine the broken down building was actually a getaway area for the Prime.

* * *

Freefire whistled as he walked up the steps to the broken down apartment building. He stopped in front of an apartment, and knocked. "Coral! I brought energon!"

It didn't take very long for the door to open, and a light blue mech to stand with sneer on his face. "Where were you?"

"Fragging a Prime." Freefire walked into the apartment, and pulled two cubes of energon out of his subspace.

Coral shook his helm as he allowed the door to close. "I told you I didn't want to hear about your work. In fact, I don't even want you doing that… work."

Freefire shrugged as he walked over to the small counter in the corner of the room, and sat down the two cubes. "Can't help it. I'm looking for work, really I am Coral, but this job seems to always show up."

Coral stared at the low grade and sighed. "He didn't pay you."

Freefire frowned. "He has a gathering coming up and the end of the decaorn, and he wants me to escort him. He's basically holding this time's pay hostage, so after I do this job for him, he's gonna pay me double, plus escort fees, so we just have to hold out a little longer."

Coral sighed. "As soon as we get the money we need, we're out of Kaon, and you're out of this work. Got it? Maybe we'll move to Altihex." Coral smiled at the thought. "What do you think?"

"Altihex, huh?" Freefire smiled as he popped open the cube of low grade. "That sounds nice."

Coral walked over to the counter, and opened his own cube of energon, slowly drinking the contents. Freefire watched the mech with a smile on his face. "I love you."

Coral jumped and stared at Freefire. "Shut up." He turned away from Freefire with a frown. "Good for nothing."

Freefire laughed. "No, really I do!"

Coral kept his back turned to Freefire. "How long are you going to be gone?"

"An orn or two."

"Well, an orn two isn't THAT long of a time. Good luck trying to fit in with high castes."

Freefire groaned as he allowed his helm to hit the counter.

* * *

To say the trip to Iacon wasn't the most awkward thing Freefire had ever done, would be true. The most awkward thing Freefire had ever done involved a triple changer and five different kinds of High grade in various places. But that was a long time ago. The trip to Iacon was probably the most awkward thing Freefire had done in the last vorn. The entire time Sentinel spent trying to teach Freefire how to walk like a high caste. His poise had to be perfect. He had to keep his chin level with the ground, and his steps had to be "Dignified". When Freefire got something wrong, Sentinel would throw a data pad at him.

By the time the huge vessel had made it to Iacon, barely three joors after it left Kaon, Freefire had mastered the poise, but not the chin thing. He couldn't see where he was walking so he kept tripping. Finally Sentinel stuck a data pad on his helm, and said if it fell, Freefire would lose all his pay. It seemed to do the trick, because when Freefire walked out of the ship, Sentinel could have sworn if not for the scratched up frame, that Freefire was a high caste.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Sentinel smirked.

"Shut up." Freefire grunted.

"You better start talking like you're high caste, or I might leave you on the side of the street. No pay."

Freefire sighed. "Yes, sir."

"Better." Sentinel led Freefire down the walkway into the entrance of the Prime's palace. He turned down a hall, and a mech ran up to greet him.

"Prime, the mech you asked for is here."

Sentinel nodded. "Bring him to the guest room."

"Ah, yes, sir." Freefire watched the mech run away, and smiled. Sentinel had these mechs wrapped around his digit. Just like Sentinel had him. Probably holding something over their helms. Black mail most likely.

Sentinel stopped in front of a door and typed in a code. "This is the guest room you will be staying in tonight after the party. Tomorrow morning you will have your credits, and will be shipped back to Kaon, where filth like you belong."

"Of course." Freefire stepped into the room and smirked. It was gorgeous. Freefire walked to the center of the room, and slowly turned. The moldings on the walls were etched with symbols that Freefire couldn't read. The berth looked like the one Sentinel had in his getaway building in Kaon. Thinly woven metal hung from the four posts, draping over the berth.

"Don't get too used to it." Sentinel ruined the moment. Freefire rolled his optics and glanced back at him. "You _will_ be leaving."

"I hope so." Freefire smiled.

"Lord Prime, I am here."

Freefire stared at the new green mech. He held a huge case, and he seemed to be struggling with it. Sentinel motioned to Freefire. "Fix him. Make him look presentable for tonight's gathering."

"Yes, sir!" The Green mech started opening cases, and setting up a small table. He pulled out a small buffer pad.

Freefire smirked as the big green mech walked up behind him with a hand held buffer. "Hands on the berth, and bend over."

"Ohh, but mister, this is only our first time meeting!"

The mech took a step back optics wide. "N-no! I-"

"Just wanted to do naughty things to me?" Freefire optics twinkled. "Just wanted to pu-"

"Freefire!" Freefire glanced back at the door. Sentinel stood glaring. "Behave, or no pay."

Freefire sent a glare to the mech. "Tch. Fine." He leaned on the berth. "Fair warning. My aft is ticklish."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** Hey guys, tis Auto! So we decided we weren't gonna wait till the 29th to introduce you to Amira. Figured it'd be entirely too long of a waiting period, so no you get to meet my darling!

* * *

"Hey, femme, wakey wakey."

Violet optics onlined, flashing brightly and dimming, before returning to their normal state. They darted over to the mech who was slightly shaking her shoulder, the femme arched an optic ridge.

Amira pushed her upper half up until she was in a sitting position, and looked at the mech she was sharing a bed with. His bottom lip was quivering, optics darting about, and overall acting very restless. She had to hold back a snort at the mech's panic.

"Listen, my boyfriend's going to be here in a bit so I need you to leave, alright? Here's your pay, you can use the washracks but make it quick," he practically threw the credits at the femme, who gathered them quickly and shoved them into her subspace.

"I'll clean up at my place, darlin'. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble," she winked, swinging herself out of the berth and stretching.

It took her only a matter of minutes to gather her things up, and was out of the housing unit and sashaying down the street back to her own apartment.

She had gotten good at ignoring the dirty, predatory, disgusted looks and licking of lips as she walked down the street, her frame was scratched in some places from her rather.. eager client whom the femme discovered had claws, and boy did he know how to use them.

The catcalls rolled right off Amira's armor as she typed in the pass code to her housing unit, stepping inside as the door slid open and dropping her bag on the floor, door sliding shut behind her.

Exhausted, the femme moved to feed her pet, a cybercat, then collapsed on the couch and instantly fell back into recharge.

* * *

When Amira awoke, the first thing she noticed was the warm metal and weight against her face. She reached a servo up, finding the head of the animal, and gently petting it and scratching the cybercat on his underjaw.

"C'mon Tye… I've gotta re-detail my armor and get something to eat," the femme moaned, but the creature refused to move, and instantly just let out a rebellious 'meow' while snuggling up to her.

Optics narrowed in slight irritation, but at the same time Amira made no move to shove the creature who had suddenly decided to be affectionate off. In reality, she really couldn't shove the big cat off of her. Tye came nearly up to the top of her knees.

But nonetheless, secretly the femme enjoyed this 'bonding' time, since Tye was so choosey when he gave his love.

It was only a few minutes later when he suddenly became interested in something else, and leapt off the femme to go laze about somewhere else.

She didn't move for a few moment, but decided the more time she wasted the less time she had for other things. The femme moved into the kitchen part of her housing unit, and instantly pulled two Energon cubes out.

One was cracked open and set on the counter for Tye, the other found its way to her lips from which she drank greedily from, propped against the counter. She really wasn't sure why he insisted to drink on the counter, the cybercat was nearly too big to move comfortably around on the narrow strip.

Tye decided to grace her with his presence yet again, hopping up on the counter and lapping at the cube, before his optics glanced up to the femme and he settled back down, meowing impatiently.

Amira snorted, turning around and pulling a bag of treats out of the cupboard and throwing one at the cat, who eagerly gulped it up, finished his cube, and disappeared again.

"You little fragger," she muttered fondly, gathering up her detailing equipment and moving into her washracks.

A moment was allowed to pause and look out the window over the sprawling buildings Iacon had to offer, the femme smiling softly as she watched the hustle and bustle of her home.

A short walk later and in the confines of the washracks, the equipment was set down, the liquid adjusted to the right temperature, and armor peeled off. She stepped in, instantly rumbling contently as it washed over her frame and cleaned the grime off.

Amira pulled a bottle of solvent towards her, and squirted it into her servos before setting the bottle back down and lathering the solvent all over her frame.

In no time, the femme was back in pristine condition. She stepped out, looking over at her armor with pursed lips, then checking her internal chronometer.

She had to be to work in an hour, and decided to just use her adorned armor instead until she could clean up this set. The time she'd like to put into cleaning it just wasn't there.

Amira set off to her berthroom, digging through the subspace closet and pulling out the other armor set. The task to brush it up with a quick one, and soon the femme was adjusting the armor to fit comfortably.

After another few minutes and feeding Tye for the last time, she was off to the strip club on the outskirts of Iacon to start her other job.

* * *

The music pounded in her Energon lines, the beat forming her movements as she twirled around the pole. Mechs whistled and catcalled, throwing credits at her and the other dancers as they exhibited just how flexible they could be.

Amira was easily one of the most experienced exhibitionists, having worked here since what seemed forever. It showed too, in the way she danced and worked the crowd. Her biolights were bright and flashing, the glow illuminating her frame in the rather dimly lit atmosphere.

A little while later and it was finally time for her break.

The femme hopped down off her stage, one of the lesser experienced dancers now taking her place as Amira made her way through the crowd to get a drink from the bar.

"The usual, dear?" the bartender, Brinelight, greeted with a warm smile at the other. He was a kind mech who seemed to be as old as the establishment, and Amira had forged a close relationship with him.

"That would be amazing, thank you," she returned, nodding her helm with a smile.

Brinelight turned his back to prepare her drink, Amira idly studying her digits when a mech slid into the seat next to her.

"You're quite the extraordinary dancer," he purred, lip pulled up at the corner.

"If you're getting fresh you're going to have to be more original than that, darlin'," Amira stated, attention from her digits unfaltering.

"Alright, you seem like a smart, sexy, gorgeous femme. I'd like to offer you a job," the mech stated.

"What does this job entail? Thank you Brinelight," Amira responded to both mechs, taking the drink the other had handed her and taking a sip, optic looking to the presumably high class mech.

"It's an Escort job. I have certain things I need to attend to at a formal event, and it isn't exactly a lovely experience if I go alone and every other mech has a femme hanging off of them," he explained, waving a servo.

"Oh yes, that'd be a real shame, wouldn't it? Your ego might collapse in on itself and kill you," she commented dryly. "What's the pay?"

"2,000 credits for three hours."

Amira's optic ridges shot up in surprise, the femme leaning against the bar and eyeing the mech up with a predatory gaze. "I always get paid half the installment before the gig and the rest after."

"That's alright with me. The event is tomorrow night."

"Alright, I'll do it. Give me your contact information and I'll comm. you with a meeting location, then you can take me to this thing. I'm Amira."

A charming smile was given by the mech. "I can't wait Amira. I'm Chazzin. I'll see you then, and look nice~"

With that, Chazzin stood and disappeared back within the crowd, and let Amira focus in on her drink.

She could feel Brinelight's skeptical look despite her optics being downcast. "What is it, Brine?"

"You know I worry for ya, 'Ira. Things are getting rougher out there," the mech stated, propping himself against the bar and studying the femme. "You heard about Sentinel's last escort, didn't ya?"

"Sentinel's a Prime, Brine. This mech is a high class wannabe. They're two completely different danger levels. Besides, it's Iacon, not Kaon for spark's sakes. I'll be fine, and besides, I can handle them if they try anything," she stated, lifting her helm to meet the other's gaze. "You've seen my collection, you know what I can do."

Brinelight let out a long, low vent, shaking her helm. "I know, I know. Just be safe, ya hear?"

"I hear you, Brinelight. I'll be careful, promise," the femme purred, finishing her drink and tipping him.

With that, the femme set off to finish her routine for the night, and prepare for what tomorrow brought her.

* * *

Everything had gone smoothly, her armor polished up nicely, Tye was behaving as most as a cat could, and she was still alive.

Now the femme was leaning against a wall in an alley, patiently waiting for Chazzin to show up.

She had been there for a good half hour before he finally did, the femme leveling him with a glare and scolding him about schedules. He had took all of it with nothing more than a smirk, handed her the first half of the credits, and then the two had set off for the event.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys! It's Ninja. Look! It's on time! It was a close call too. We almost missed our first scheduled update. Wow. We're still a bit iffy on our mixing of styles, so Feedback on that would nice. Any constructive criticism is always welcome as well. Thank you to those of you who have done that already! =D**

 **Next update July 13th 2015**

* * *

 _ **3 joors**_

* * *

Freefire glanced up at the huge building as Sentinel led him forward, an arm wrapped around Freefire's shoulder. "It's nice isn't it?" He waved to the crowd with his free hand. "I chose this building because of the pure amount it costs. Not even the richest of nobles could afford to rent this whole building as I have."

Freefire snorted, leaning into the Prime's side. "Primus forbid one of them have a bigger credit spike than you do." Freefire flinched, his helm shooting off the Prime's shoulder, as a sudden pain shot through his own shoulder.

Sentinel was pinching an exposed cable that was exceptionally sensitive. The small amount of pressure effectively silenced the yellow mech. "Primus forbid something were to happen to that mech back in Kaon, yes?"

Freefire froze. Coral? Sentinel shoved him along the huge crowd of mechs and femmes who gathered at the entrance of the building just to get a glimpse of their great and prideful prime. "Then again," Sentinel continued, "I suppose you may care more for the credits than you do for your mech toy."

"Don't talk about Coral like that." Freefire's face darkened as they walked into the empty lobby of the building. Freefire stopped in the door way as soon as the two were out of the view of reporters. "If you do," He shrugged Sentinel's arm away from him. His arms falling limply to his side, fists clinched. He turned to face the Prime with a glare, "I'll kill you."

Sentinel snorted pulling Freefire close, "Of course you will."

Freefire felt the smugness of Sentinels smirk radiate from his frame. He hated this mech. If he didn't need him so much he would never have kept fragging him. He wouldn't be here. But he needed the credits. He needed them for Coral.

As the two entered the main banquet hall, the soft music reached Freefire's audials. It was disgusting. The soft, elegant, classical cybertronian music echoed through the hall. It was the kind of music Freefire just wanted to crush and burn, if it was possible to do such a thing to sound.

The room was full of bots whose armor was light, polished, and fancy. It wouldn't protect them for long in Kaon. The bots were chatting among each other, having a "great" time, being bored out of their processors. When the bots noticed Sentinel standing in the doorway they froze, and as one, the crowd bowed low to their one and only Prime.

Sentinel held his helm high, and led Freefire through the crowd of bowing bots. He reached the stage, and released Freefire, before stepping up to a mic. "Hello, my fellow Cybertronians!" He smiled as the bots slowly raised up from their bow. "It is good to be able to have this lovely event with you all. Please, enjoy yourselves." Sentinel nodded to the people who clapped their servos as he stepped off the stage.

Sentinel wrapped his arm back around Freefire's shoulder and started his way through the crowd. He was stopped every few steps to talk with different individuals. One after another the couples introduced themselves. High caste bots who made credits off the lower caste workers. Disgusting piles of slag, and finally Freefire couldn't take it anymore. "Excuse me." Freefire bowed, "I seem to be low on fuel. I'll be back as soon as possible, my Prime."

Sentinel glanced down at Freefire, and nodded. "Of course."

Freefire bowed towards the couple Sentinel was currently talking to before breaking away from the group. He slowly walked through the crowd, hoping if he reached the wall there would be some kind of energon dispenser. When he finally reached the wall, he was more than disappointed. He was met with a Portrait of Sentinel Prime.

The Red mech's usual slag eating grin in place. His armor was shined to perfection. Freefire was surprised he didn't have pleasure bots hanging off him, but then again, he might have just forced the painter to leave them out. This disgusting mech was the one who stripped even more rights away from the bots of Kaon, effectively making them slaves of the government.

Freefire groaned. He sighed at the strange looks a couple of mechs gave him. He shook his helm. Think of the credits. Think of Coral and him packing up out of Kaon and making their way to Altihex. He'll be moving on from the world of crooks and murderers.

Hopefully, he'd be able to get a real job. Work an honest living instead of sleeping around with strange mechs every night. Freefire smirked as he leaned up against the wall, his arms wrapping around himself in a comforting manner. He allowed his helm to lean back against the wall. He turned his helm to the left and smiled at the sight that greeted him from beyond the window.

The sky outside, was synthetic, but it was beautiful. Kaon had no such view. Kaon only saw the debris of an old destroyed spacebridge. From time to time pieces would make planet fall, and most of the time, those pieces would kill a few a bots. One of the better ways to die in Kaon.

* * *

Chazzin didn't shut up. Topics ranged from armor to optic color and personality to his future plans. Which, if he kept talking, the only future that mech was going to have was being shoved 'accidentally' into a smelting pit or getting Amira's favorite knife in his throat.

Not even ten breems into the party and the femme was practically at wits end already. Now that they were here, all he could talk about was the other Escorts and how they weren't nearly as regal as she was or how this building was so expensive. She personally questioned how he was even invited to this party.

The femme held back a sneer at the mention of the Prime. He'd probably show up in all his falsified glory, prostitutes hanging off of him, a wave of blind worshippers following behind him shooting star dust out their afts.

"I bet you Sentinel Prime will be here any moment," Chazzin whispered, a tinge of excitement and jealousy faint in his voice.

Which, as soon as those words escaped his motormouth, here he came, waltzing in with a bright yellow mech hanging off of him. Amira quirked an optic ridge at the pair. Something was definitely off, and as much as his bright coloring hurt her optics, something stood out more than that to her.

He seemed to be extraordinarily uncomfortable. The great and mighty Sentinel Prime bringing a baulky amatuer to a high class party? It was practically laughable.

"Seems like he's gonna make a speech."

"Hmm?" the femme was pulled out of her musing by Chazzin wrapping an arm around her hips and pulling her over as the mouth continued to run.

"Sentinel, he's getting up on stage to make a speech," he murmured, dragging his digits over her hip plating, before ceasing and rubbing them in small circles on her waist.

Amira hummed in acknowledgement, more interested in the Prime's companion than the speech the corrupted and greedy mech was making. He seemed awfully nervous, optics darting arou-hnn!

A quick stomp caused a wandering servo to fly away as it was getting entirely too low on her hip armor.

Fragger. She knew it was her job and all, but at least he could be patient. Was that so hard to ask?

A sharp look was given to him, as he flashed her an attempt at a charming smile. "C'mon darling, you gotta let me have some fun."

"That's extra."

Chazzin pouted, and Amira's optics narrowed. She was definitely beginning to regret this decision, and the only reason she didn't up and ditch his aft were for the credits. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

A soft vent was given as the pair's attention was drawn back to the Prime as he finished his ever so eloquent speech and stepped down from the stage, going back to the fidgeting companion. Sharp pressure on her side caused the femme to glide forward with Chazzin as he moved towards the Prime. Oh no. Anything but that.

After fighting the crowd for at least ten breems, they finally made it over.

"Sentinel Prime sir, it's an honor," he purred, giving a low bow.

Amira frowned deeply, seeing as the Prime's companion had disappeared. Snapping back to the current moment, as much as she hated it, she gave an ever so polite completely not sarcastic curtsy. The two were engaging in conversation when Amira cleared her throat and offered an apologetic smile.

"Ah, excuse me," she murmured, slipping away as Chazzin watched her slip through the crowd, optic ridges furrowed before resuming conversation with Sentinel.

Ah, finally, some freedom.

* * *

 _ **2 joors**_

* * *

Freefire almost let out a cheer when he finally found the energon "dispenser". It was a fountain. A huge metallic waterfall of energon! Freefire had never seen so much energon in one place before. He stared at the flowing liquid, with a huge smile. He wished Coral was here to see this. Coral would call it a waste of energon to just have it flowing like that. He'd fail to see the beauty. Freefire saw it though. Maybe they'd have things like this in Altihex.

"Freefire, you left for energon half a joor ago." Sentinel's voice broke the thoughts that swam around in Freefire's helm. "Have you been standing here the entire time?"

Freefire turned to Sentinel with a forced smile. "Ah, I guess I got carried away here!"

Sentinel stared at Freefire with a blank expression. Freefire glanced over to the side. Sentinel did that a lot. Just phasing out of whatever he was doing. He was trying to understand what Freefire said and meant, but didn't want to ask for help or clarification. Sentinel finally nodded. "You don't see much energon of this quality."

Freefire sighed. "No."

Sentinel smirked. "Pleasure bots from Kaon are so much different from the ones in Iacon. More raw, and less refined." Sentinel placed his servo gently under Freefire's chin, and angled his helm up. "More in touch with your inner beasts." Sentinel brought his face closer to Freefire's.

Freefire stood without struggle as Sentinel's lip components smashed against his. After a few moments the kiss ended. Sentinel had a smirk on his face. "After the party, we'll have fun, yes?"

"That'll cost you extra." Freefire smirked pinching a cable in-between a seam on Sentinel's back.

Sentinel twitched straight, and sent a glare Freefire's way. "That's fine. Perhaps we won't even have to wait until after the party."

Freefire smirked a bit. He knew the prime was easy, but not this easy. He could see the jackpot he was scoring only grow bigger. "Well, why don't we look for a quiet spot then. We can just slip away for a few breems." He slipped his digit into a seam of the Prime's armor and poked a sensory node.

Sentinel froze. He slowly glanced down at his escort, a sick smile on his face. "If you insist."

* * *

Amira's freedom had been sweet but short lived.

Chazzin had somehow tracked her down again while Amira was talking to some faces she had vaguely remembered from other parties, snacking on some of the delicacies the party had to offer.

"I hate to interrupt, but if you gents don't mind, I'd like a dance with my lady," he butted in, wrapping an arm possessively around Amira.

They waved him off and turned back to their own dates, violet optics shot over to the offender as he twirled her away, going right into a sort of waltz. Amira was less than impressed.

"Really? Didn't your carrier or sire ever teach you manners? It's rude to barge into conversations," she snapped, grudgingly moving along to his rhythm. The cables attached to her helm swung gently, Chazzin's servos momentarily left her shoulder to caress and run through them.

He grimaced when she spoke, shaking his helm as his servo returned to its place, the mech twirled the femme away and back to him. "Ugh, save me the lectures, please. We're here to have fun, enjoy ourselves, get a little drunk and frag."

"Excuse you?" Amira snapped, optics narrowed as they moved closer to the edge of the group of dancers.

"You heard me baby," Chazzin grunted, dipping Amira as the song ended.

"Oh yes, yes I did," her voice was dangerously low and flat as she was pulled back up to her pedes.

"So, what do you say?"

His answer came as a swift punch to the jaw, sending the mech reeling back and stumbling into the crowd. She didn't give him the chance to recover as the femme disappeared among the others and made her way out of the ballroom and into the building itself.

She needed to calm herself down, quick.

* * *

 ** _1.5 joors_**

* * *

Sentinel hauled Freefire down the hall as Freefire hung off his back, gently nibbling on his audial. It was quite obvious that Sentinel was growing rather frustrated as he tried to find a door that was unlocked _and_ had enough space for the both of them.

Freefire could only smirk as the oh so great Prime let out groans and grunts from the small amounts of stimulation Freefire was sending down his frame. Finally Sentinel found a room that he felt was suitable. He ripped Freefire off his back and tossed him into the room, stomping in himself soon after; The door shutting behind him.

Freefire glanced around. "A storage closet? What do I look like, a Kaonian?"

"Yes." Sentinel grunted pushing Freefire against the wall, and smashing his lip components against Freefire's. "You do."

* * *

 _ **.5 Joors**_

* * *

Amira was slouched against one of the walls on the far side of the building away from all the commotion, attempting to clear her processor.

Digits ran through the cables attached to her helm that ran down to her shoulder in slow, calculated motions, optics narrowed and focused in on a spot on the wall that was just a shade lighter than the rest of the coloration.

It irritated her.

Just like mechs who couldn't control themselves, or anything she couldn't control really. That was a huge stressor for the feme.

She let out a soft chuckle, thinking of how Brinelight would always tell her she was in the wrong job if she wanted to be in control all the time. What was always her response? Oh yes.

 _I'm still in control of my life. I choose who, what, when, where, why. I am in control. Plus you gotta make a living somehow._

Feeling she was ready to endure the last few joors of the night, the femme stood. She went to take a step forward, and nearly had a spark attack when a door slid open right beside her, someone barreling out.

* * *

Freefire froze, staring right into the purple optics of an obviously pissed off femme. Her arms were crossed. she was biting her bottom lip in an attempt to hold back, from what? Freefire couldn't tell. She looked awfully high caste though. This probably wasn't going to end well. "Uhh." Freefire let out a nervous laugh. "Nice party?"

Amira felt one of her optic ridges cocking up at the other, giving her helm a shake. "Not exactly to my taste, honestly."

Freefire stared at the femme. Oh scrap. Did he insult her? Maybe it was a trap. Maybe she was a reporting trying get dirt on Sentinel. She just wants him to admit to being a pleasure bot so she can exploit his client! "Uhh. Classy place, huh? Impressive the big bot could afford it."

Alright, that earned a soft chuckle from the other. "It's classy, I'll admit to that. Big bot, as in the Prime?" she scoffed, rolling her optics. "He could probably afford anything his shrewd little spark desired."

Freefire held back a snort. "I call him "Big Bot cause he's so tall. You know a big bot like that probably has no issue at all taking control and throwing a bot on a berth so fast his op… I mean he's so uh… regal." Freefire glanced down at the floor. "yeah… regal."

A coy little smirk slipped onto her features. "He pay well?"

Freefire frowned. "Don't know what you're talking about. I don't get paid. Though, I guess If he were to pay he'd pay pretty well. I mean he's a prime…"

"Oh hon, you're a horrible liar," Amira tsked, moving forward in one fluid motion to tap a clapped digit against the other's chest, smirking up at him. "C'mon now, I saw you two walk in together. You're his play toy."

Freefire frowned. A million things went through his helm as the femme closed in on him. His servos hung by his side, as he readied himself to pull out his pistols. "We could be dating for all you know. I mean he's the prime, and I'm just looking for a good time."

"Hey, I know my kind when I see one, sweetspark. You don't have to lie to me," she rumbled, optics flashing. She made no move to step back until she got the answer she was looking for.

Freefire's face lit up. "You… You're from Kaon too?" His smile only grew with every word. He thought he was alone in this stupid party, nobody who shared his background. It was kind of strange, but if this femme was from Kaon as well, he'd have somebody to talk to at least!

Amira shook her helm, "No, I'm an Iaconian native. The kind I was referring to was the..bots of the night, if you will. Escorts, prossies, darlings just lookin' for a good time and getting some credits out of it."

Freefire's face fell. He pushed the femme's hand off his chassis, and allowed his helm to fall to the side. "Just say pleasure bot. That's what it is." Freefire allowed a small smirk to cross his face. "He pays decent. It's more than what anybody in Kaon pays. It's more than enough. Though He cheats me alot. Freefire. My designation is Freefire. No more of the Hun, I don't even know what that means."

Her servo was instantly rerouted to her hip, which now cocked to the side as she listened to the other speak. She idly wondered how much Kaon pay was compared to Iaconian, and how much the Prime payed him for this endeavour.

"Well hu-Freefire, it's a pleasure to meet you. Name's Amira. Hun's just a pet term I use with everybody. Gets formality out of the way. Also seems to get some mechs riled up if you know what I mean.'' She winked and took a step back, allowing the other some personal space.

Freefire leaned up against the wall. "Is that what Iaconian mechs like? You to call them strange pet names that makes no sense? Weird." Freefire crossed his arms over his chassis. "You live in Iacon, right? or are you just native? As soon as I get enough credits I plan to move to Altihex. I need all the documents and scrap, ya know? Getting the documents forged takes a lot of credits." Freefire laughed. "So expensive!"

She perked at the mention of Altihex. "Oh! I've been there. Gorgeous place. You'll love it there."

"I don't know about that. It's gonna be a big change. Kaon's not so bad when I think about it. You know, If you enjoy life in the pits."

The primarily gray femme cringed and made a disgusted face. "Ah, no thanks. Not the life for me, I'll stay in my lovely penthouse with Tye. Much cleaner, nicer, prettier, and all that fun stuff. I've lived in Iacon my entire life, along with my creators and grand creators."

"Penthouse, huh? Nice. Where's that exactly? I mean. I don't want to rob it or anything. That's not my thing. Well, it hasn't been for a while." Freefire let out a nervous laugh. "It'll just be nice to have a connection in Iacon in case something goes bad. It happens a lot to me…"

Her servos were thrown up, palms out and head down with a chuckle. "Hey, not a problem, not a problem. I've had many come through to chill for a day or a while. You know that bar? The one called Geardust? I live about a block away in a very light red building, got crystals growing in the front. You can come through any time. Keep a key for manual door opening under the biggest crystal."

Freefire stared blankly at the femme for a moment. "It's kinda easy to get a key from you isn't it?" He snorted. "I mean, you're just gonna give it to me and hope I don't murder your family or something?"

"I don't have a family to go home to so no worries there. Anything you steal I can just replace. Also I don't think Tye would let you do anything stupid. I trust him to keep you in line you ever show up," Amira stated with a shrug, coils rolling off her shoulders and dangling down her back now.

Freefire laughed. This femme was way too trusting. "Nothing a plasma blast to helm won't fix." He sent the femme a huge smile.

The smile returned was nothing but a hair short of predatory. "I don't peg you as that type, not in the slightest dear Freefire. He could handle you easy, considering he's brought down mechs and femmes much larger than yourself. Nonetheless, you're welcome anytime," she chuckled.

"So, you planning on heading back in there? Sure you're Prime's looking for you."

Freefire frowned. Did he say something to offend the femme? "I doubt he's looking for me. He abandoned me in the closet after all. I'm pretty sure he knocked one of my hip joints out of place though. Hurts like the pits."

Hmm, he had a point. Violet optics drifted down to the yellow mech's hip, lips pursed in thought. "You check to see if they had a medic around here anywhere? I'm sure if we find one we can solve that problem."

Freefire started laughing. "Oh Primus! you're funny! A medic! Ha ha! I've never been to a medic in my life. Why would I go to one for a little displaced hip joint?"

She was in absolute disbelief. Were bots in Kaon really that poor? "You've never been to a medic? Like ever? Seriously? What do you do if you..y'know.. get hurt? You don't actually just let it heal on it's own do you?"

Freefire stopped laughing. His smile faded as he stared at the femme. "It'd be nice if Kaon even had medics. Nobody there is smart enough to do scrap like that. You get hurt you walk it off or offline. There's no alternative. I mean there's the back alley scum, but they're more likely to infect you with some weird virus or scrap like that." Freefire shrugged. "It's just life. You get dealt a card and you roll with it. So it goes."

Amira was positive her jaw was agape at this point but could care less. "That's absolutely ridiculous! Like what the frag even! It's so wrong you and everyone else has to deal with that. Ugh. It really riles my engine. And I'm sure the pretty little Prime does absolutely nothing about that. Digusting. We put our lives on the line for our work and when we're repaid like that it gets me. Hmph. If I knew anything besides how to stop bleeding or work with minor wounds, I'd totally come down and open up a clinic. That's injustice of the Council at it's finest right there."

Freefire snorted. "We don't need your pity. I'll make that clear right now. Kaon runs on a simple system. If you're weak, you die. That's it. You open a clinic, you'll get robbed. No doubt. Medical slag sales for big in Kaon. Learn your place as a nice mid-caste and don't worry about those lower than you. Worry about yourself." Freefire sighed allowing the back of his helm to hit the wall. "What's the use in pity anyways besides showing off how kind and caring you are. People help others for selfish reasons."

"No place should ever be that way though. It's wrong," she growled, shaking her helm. "Besides, what do you know about pity and helping others? There another reason you decided to just shoot straight for the Prime? I feel he would have given you enough credits to move already, so what's your selfish reason, hmm?"

"I put my life at risk fragging around with the prime. You think he's Kaons most favorite bot ever? You get caught doing that slag and you get killed." Freefire sighed. "My selfish reason for what? I don't help anybody but me, myself and I."

"Mmhmm." She wasn't buying that. At all.

"So you just do it for the massive amount of credits and luxury the Prime gives you then? Is that it? Despite constant death threats."

"I do it so I don't have to live in Kaon anymore. If I lived in such luxury why would I want to move?" Freefire smiled. "Think femme! Use that nice helm."

Amira resisted the urge to stick her glossa out at the other. "Alright, I surrender, I surrender," she chuckled, placing her servos on her hips with a smile.

She checked her internal chronometer, and frowned. 30 minutes till this thing was done. "Hey, Freefire, we've got thirty breems till this thing's done with. Want an escort back to your Prime?"

Freefire smirked. "Only if you don't charge me."

The smirk was returned. "Free of service to others in the career field, m'dear."

Freefire offered his arm for the femme to take. "We'll just have to see if my services follow the same policies."

Amira threw back her head with a laugh, taking his arm and resting against the other with a grin. "I have no problem if they're not. Maybe I'll even tip for some extra flaunting."

Freefire's optics lit up. "You want flaunting femme?" Freefire quickly twirled. "Look at this frame! Nothing in the world, with few exceptions, is as beautiful as this one!"

Her biolights lit up, flashing in amusement. "I bet I could give you a run for that title."

"Nobody can give me a run for this title! This frame is specifically designed to look fine." Freefire sent a wink to Femme. "There's no other use for it. Well besides shooting slag, but I don't get to do that often."

"Oh ho, I bet you I could find a use for it," she chided back, the pair entering the main hall now.

"It brings pleasure to others. What more could it need to do?" Freefire flashed the femme a smile.

Amira chuckled, going to respond when-

"Freefire."

Freefire and Amira slowly turned to the entrance of the main hall. Sentinel was leaning up against the doorway. His arms crossed over his chassis and his optics glued onto Freefire with a look that said, I'm so tired of your slag. "Are you well?"

"Yes, sir. I am very well."

"Well, then answer me this. Why are you here and not with me?"

Freefire sighed. "I ran into this fine femme, and I was just apologizing!"

"In here. Now." Sentinel held out his arm for Freefire to take it.

Freefire nodded to Amira. "Sorry. Nice meeting you." He flashed the femme a smile before quickly running back to the huge red prime.

Amira gave a nod after the retreating yellow form, before turning and heading back into the ballroom to find her own abandoned date.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ninja here, again. Auto ran off on Vacation this morning, so It's just me doing the Author's note this time. This one we were working on for a very long time last night. We didn't finish until about 2 AM my time, so 3Am Auto's. So Fun.**

 **Remember, any constructive Criticism is cool with us! This is my first time doing a collab, so technique help and all that jazz is most welcome! Also, if transitions between characters is confusing, TELL US. We're still iffy on whether we're clear enough when we switch.**

 **So please enjoy this chapter, or don't. I'm not the boss of you. Next update: July 27th 2015  
**

* * *

It took some work relocating Chazzin as bots tried to file out of the building, seeing as the party was just about over. The crowd parted for the rather intimidating femme, making it much easier for her to glide through the halls and main floor, spying a certain little fragger disappearing around a corner followed by a slender red and black mech.

Oh pit no.

Amira started off again, heels clicking on the ground and causing the sound to echo throughout the now barren ballroom. A swift turn around the corner gave her a scene of a rival escort attempting to get her client into a closet.

Amateur.

"Opium, Opium," the primarily grey femme tsked, sliding in between the closing door to keep it pried open as two helms whipped towards her. She couldn't deny a little part of her loved seeing the fear in the pale yellow optics of the red and black mech.

"Amira. May I help you?" the voice was a sweet and smooth tenor as per usual. It had the ability to draw just about everyone in, and if one wasn't careful, they could mess around and get addicted to it.

Everyone except Amira that was.

"Yes you may, by getting your gnarly servos off my client promptly, please and thank you," she snapped, grabbing Opium by the neck and hoisting him out of the closet, promptly pinning him against the opposite wall.

"Now now m'lady, no need to get aggressive," Opium wheezed, trying to pry the clawed digits off from around his neck.

"Do you know how many times we've had this discussion?"

"Very few?"

"Too many you gutter rat. Get out of here," Amira hissed, dropping the other and moving back over to Chazzin, who looked very impressed at the display of strength and aggression from his date.

"Shall we depart?" he asked, cocking an optic ridge with a small smirk laced onto his lips.

"We shall."

The pair had moved deep into a dead end alley to say their goodbyes and part. It was a 'thank the cosmic forces' moment for the femme, until Chazzin threw a wrench in her plans.

"I'm not paying you."

The statement caught her by surprise, the instant reaction of hers was to press a servo to her chestplates and give the most offended look. "Excuse you?"

"I'm not paying you. You didn't provide the services I wanted," he snipped, crossing his arms over his chest. "I expected you to stay by my side the entire party and give a good frag after."

"Hun, you hired an Escort. You know what the job description for that is? I'll give you a hint, nothing about it involves being your little fragging toy," Amira growled darkly, servos now on her cocked hips.

"Alright, you glitch, you know what? I tried being nice but apparently that doesn't get through your thick helm. So we're going to do this my way now," Chazzin abruptly snarled, pulling a plasma blade from his subspace. He advanced towards the other, optics narrowed dangerously. The mech, however, didn't get very far.

A gurgled yelp and the sound of metal squeaking and screeching was heard, followed by a hushed clanging noise as his frame was lowered to the ground softly with the staff that was impaled through his chestplates.

"Prick," Amira muttered, glancing around and pulling her staff out from the frame. Alright good, no one had witnessed that. Her optics drifted back to the body, lip curled in disgust. Ugh, if only he had behaved himself like a true gentlemech, but nooo. Of course he couldn't. Now she was forced to do this kind of work.

Glancing over her shoulder again, Amira maneuvered her bladed staff to the cape of the neck, but quickly changed her mind and instead pressed it forcefully against a seam on his hip. With a soft hiss, the codpiece slid open.

She barely held in the snicker that threatened to escape. Good thing she skipped out on this one, it would have been absolutely disappointing. No time was wasted, however, one quick swipe and the deed was done.

With the first little prize secured, she moved onto the second one. His head. The blade was again pressed to his neck, and with little effort her second prize rolled clean off.

Amira suppressed a shiver of delight as she subspaced her prizes, turning around and quickly exiting the alleyway.

It took her maybe 30 breems tops to get back to her penthouse, a little skip in her step as she opened the door and strode inside. She slid into the elevator, and rode it up to her floor. Standing still and not acting excited about her recent accomplishment was abnormally hard tonight.

The excuse eventually came out to because he was being such a dick, it felt good to pull that trigger.

Amira arrived on her floor, sliding down the hall to her door and typing in the passcode. It slid open, and she was instantly greeted with a needy Tye. His mood quickly changed once he smelled relatively fresh Energon, the predatory gleam shining in the panther's amber optics.

A bemused look wedged its way onto the femme's faceplates as she scooted into her penthouse, the cybercat now practically jumping on her.

"Tell you what, you behave until we get into the back room and I'll let you have the Energon, deal?"

An insistent chirp was given in reply. It was good enough for her, she decided as the brisk walk was made across the main room, through the kitchen to grab a bucket, out into and through her pole room, to a door right next to the washracks. Like every door in the penthouse, this one had a lock pad to get into it, for you couldn't have visitors wander accidentally into one's collection room, and it would be suspicious if only one door had it. Whenever anyone asked about such bizarre security measures, she claimed it was so Tye couldn't enter them, or if there was ever a break in to prevent her prized possessions from being stolen.

The code was typed it, the door slid open, and she ducked inside, Tye right on her heels. Time for the overnight curing process to begin.

* * *

Sentinel smirked at the yellow mech as he walked into his office, a slight limp in his step. "My, my, Freefire, you look rather… worn."

Freefire snorted. Worn didn't begin to describe how he felt. As if the closet incident wasn't worse enough, Sentinel felt he deserved more after the party. So most of the rest of night was spent having more, "fun." Freefire was left with a sore frame and throbbing hip joint. "Where's the pay?" Sentinel pointed to the data pad sitting on the edge of his desk. Freefire carefully picked it up and stared at the screen. A sneer crossed his face. "You're a little short."

"I do not believe I am." Sentinel smiled as he crossed his arms over his chassis.

"You said you'd pay me double, you pile of scrap!" Freefire tossed the data pad back down on the desk.

"I said, I might pay you double. I paid your escort fees, and the work you did back in Kaon. I even threw in a bit extra for the little job you did at the party."

Freefire growled. "Even with that, you're short!"

"I was not going to pay for your polishing. That cost a lot of credits. Let's not forget the fees for staying in the luxury suite." Sentinel smiled. "So as you can see, the amount is correct."

"Correct my aft! I want the pay you promised me, and I want it now!" Freefire slammed his servos on the desk, causing a small pile of data pads to tip over onto the ground.

Sentinel slowly stood up, his form looming over Freefire. "Do you just want to end up like my previous escort? He had quite the big mouth as well. I paid what I promised. Our business is complete. You can either leave the residence of the prime by yourself, or I can have somebody show you out."

"Excuse me? Business NOT complete! I have to get back to Kaon!"

"I did not promise a way for you to return. You should be happy. A new life in Iacon is a great opportunity."

"I don't want a life in Iacon! I need to get back to Kaon and you know fragging well I can't without getting through the border control!"

"I suggest you find a way then. Guards!"

Freefire twirled around just as the doors opened. Huge mechs quickly started filing into the room, blasters pointed straight at him. With a sigh he brought his arms over his helm. Showing the bots his empty servos. "I enjoy long walks and poetry. Especially long walks with nice looking bots like yourselves."

One of the guards snorted. "We're going on a long walk alright. Right out of the residence."

* * *

Freefire sat on the ground outside the gates of the Prime's residence. Coral was going to worry. He was probably waiting on him to come back now. But let's face it. He probably wasn't going to make it back anytime soon. What was he going to do now?

Freefire's helm fell to the side. That femme he met. Maybe she'd help him. Pleasure bots had to stick together, right? A smile spread across his face. Let's see, she mentioned something about a bar. Slag it. What was that place called? Gearbeetz? No. Gearsludge? Definitely not. At this rate he wasn't getting anywhere. He'd just have to ask around.

* * *

A loud bang and shouting startled Amira wake the next morning. She groggily looked around, vaguely remembering after she had gotten her prizes set up to cure and her staff cleaned and put away, she wandered out here in a sleepy haze and made the couch her bed for the night.

The shouting and banging on her door continued, causing the femme to purse her lips as she stood and trudged over. A quick armor check revealed she looked pretty fragging good despite not polishing since yesterday.

"This is the Iaconian Police Department, open the door."

Well frag.

Time to put the naive, processor-less, adorable act into play.

Amira bounded over to the door, typing in the code and leaning against the frame as it slid open. "Good morning officers! May I help you?"

The biggest officer of the pair, a light orange and ivory femme, nodded. "You can. We're here to inquire about an incident that happened after Sentinel Prime's gala last night. Someone was murdered."

Cue the astonished look. "Oh my, that is quite unfortunate. Come in, please. I'll answer any questions you may have, but insist you do it in comfort. Would either of you like some warmed Energon or snacks?" Amira inquired, stepping out of the way to let the Enforcers in.

"Policy says we cannot," the femme's partner, a little tan and salmon mech, spoke up.

"Oh. Very well, but please have a seat," she insisted, watching the pair exchange glances before grudgingly sitting on the lavish, sprawling couch as Amira settled into her round loveseat.

"Now, Miss, I am Enforcer Fyre, and this is my partner, Duskwatch," the femme stated, gesturing to the other who nodded in greeting. "We have some questions for you in hopes you may be able to shed some light on last night's happenings or give us another clue. Would you mind telling us about your night?"

"Of course, Enforcer. Well, this nice mech had approached me about being his date to Sentinel's gathering, and I accepted. So we went there, and danced the night away. When the party ended, we proceeded outside, stopped to say our goodbyes then parted," Amira stated, clasping her servos together then placing them in her lap.

"Do you remember the mech's name?" Duskwatch asked, taking notes down on a datapad.

"I think it was Chazzin. Yes, his name was Chazzin," she mused, gnawing on her lip.

"Well, Miss Amira, Chazzin was the one who was murdered last night. We found his body in an alleyway in the early morning hours. He was headless and someone had removed his genitals," Fyre stated, waiting for the other femme's reaction.

The acting classes when she was a youngling better pay off.

Amira let out a gasp, pressing her servos to her mouth while shaking. "No, that can't be him. He was so sweet and such a charmer! Who could have done this? H-How did you know it was him?"

"CNA tests, as well as a close friend identifying the frame. Chazzin was not who you thought he was, Miss. He is was an officer in a high profile gang the Department has been trying to get rid of for a long time. Did you notice anyone following you two during any time period during the night?" Duskwatch inquired.

Oh. Oh slag. What had she managed to get herself into? Figures of all the people in Iacon, it'd be a fragging gang member she'd have to end up killing after such a long time of good fortune.

Her optics were cast up to the ceiling to give the illusion of trying to recall faces of the night. Only one came to mind. "There was this one mech. I couldn't get too good of a look at him because he was always disappearing. But he was tall, kinda thin, black and yellow color scheme."

The air was full of only the sounds of a stylus against a screen. "Thank you, Miss Amira. We'll be in touch, and in the case you remember anything, anything at all, here's the comm. number to my office and directions," Fyre stated as she and her partner stood, the femme handing the other a datapad.

Amira took it in trembling servos, giving a thankful nod. "Okay."

The two Enforcers departed, leaving the femme staring at a blank screen and her only company being the thought of being targeted by a gang.

Primus damn it.

* * *

Freefire jumped out of an alley right in front of a mech, arms out ready to catch the guy if he decided to run like all the rest had. The mech jumped back, letting out a yell of panic. Before the mech could turn and run, Freefire grabbed his arms and locks optics with him. "I need your help!"

"What the frag, mech!" The mech let out a sigh. "I almost lubed myself."

Freefire made a disgusted face. "Uh… ew."

"What were you doing jumping out like that? I thought I was gonna get mugged!"

Freefire frowned. "Why would I jump in front of you to mug you? I mean this gives you a clear view of my face a- What am I saying?" Freefire shook his helm. "I need your help!"

"What? Spit it out! I have places to be."

"There's supposed to be a bar around here called gear something or other."

"Geardust?"

"Yeah!" Freefire nodded. "I'm lost."

"No kidding." The mech sighed. "Geardust is all the way across Iacon. The quickest way to get there is the express highway, and take the se-"

"No can do on the highway."

"So what? You want to walk?" The mech snorted. "Well, I guess I've heard weirder. Here." The mech pulled out a data pad and started scribbling on it. He smiled at his finished work, and passed it to Freefire. "A map. Follow it, and you'll get there in no time. A lot of the shows there aren't worth it, but stick around for Amira. She's a beaut."

Freefire smiled. "I know her! That's who I'm looking for."

The mech nodded. "Have fun."

* * *

Amira had ended up falling back asleep, but joors later she was again awoken by pounding on the door.

"By the Allspark, at this rate I'm going to call off work from lack of recharge," the femme groaned, rolling off the loveseat and trudging to the door.

"Iaconian Enforcers. Open 'er up."

Well. That was odd and unexpected. What would they be doing back so soon?

Amira opened the door and stumbled back as two big mechs shoved their way in, causing the femme's engine to rev. "Hey! What's going on here?"

"You Amira?" the bulkiest one asked, crimson optics narrowed in stark contrast to his pale green frame.

"Yes, why?" she snipped, crossing her arms over her chestplates.

"We're here to ask you a series of questions about a murder that took place."

Violet optics narrowed. Something was off with these two. "You already did, earlier today."

An uneasy look was shared between the two mechs, before the thinner one of the group spoke up. "Yes, well, our questioning was incomplete and we forgot to inform you of procedures if you had questions about...earlier."

"No, no. I am very well informed of what I was to do afterwards," she insisted, taking a step back as the two advanced forward.

"Alright, we're taking too long. Kill her!" the bulky one snapped, charging forward as Amira went scrambling back, vaulting over the couch.

"Tye!"

At the borderline hysterical cry, the panther came vaulting through the penthouse, instantly setting his jaws, claws, and relentless fury upon the mechs. By the time Amira collected herself and stood up, the panther was slinking off again, leaving her to clean up the two bodies. She both loved and hated that cat.

With a sigh, she reached down, pushing back her disgust as she toted them away and then began to pack up the necessities. She knew she had to get out and move someplace else.

It was no longer safe here.

* * *

Freefire groaned as he finally reached the bar. The sign on top of the club featured bright Green LED lights blinking "Geardust" in standard Cybertronian. Freefire stared at the sign in awe. There wasn't anything like this is Kaon. All the buildings were bland and dark. Most of the bars didn't bother advertising in fear of some gang taking over the place. Everything was spread from mouth plates to audios of close friends whom you at least slightly trusted.

"You gonna stand there staring or you gonna come in?"

Freefire jumped. "Sorry! Your sign. It's nice."

The mech glanced up at then back to Freefire with a look on his face that said, you're either high, insane, or both. "That sign is trash. Old and going out."

Freefire frowned. "Oh. I'm looking for Amira."

"She's off until later."

"No, I mean, her place. I don't know where it is."

The mech simply stared at Freefire. "Her place? You mean where she lives?"

"Yeah."

"Red building. Over there. Top floor. She has the crystals growing in the front."

Freefire smiled. "Awesome! Bots here are really nice."

Red building was huge. Freefire had to crane his neck to an almost 90 degree angle to see the top. Amira was at the top of this tower. If everything went as he needed it to, she'd have some sort of connections and could get him back to Kaon for a cheap price. Though it may cost all his earnings this trip, but even if it did, he'd agree. Money was nothing. He just had to get back to coral.

Freefire walked into the building and looked around. Bots were standing around in weird sitting area. Was this a huge community living area? Did people not have their own apartments? Strange. How was he supposed to get to the top? Freefire smirked. There were stairs around here somewhere. There had to be.

He slowly walked around the edge of the huge room, looking at each door, and frowning at the Iaconian glyphs. As if he could read those. Finally he found a sign that at least had a picture. Stairs. How many stairs did he have to go up? This was going to be the pit.

* * *

Freefire huffed as he jumped up the last stair, a smile on his face. Freefire walked down the hall, looking for the door with the crystals out front. Finally he found the one he was looking for. He gently moved each crystal, looking for the key that the femme had referred to the previous night.

When the mech finally found it. He snickered. If this femme was rich, he was taking slag. He almost put the key card in the slot when the door swished open. Him and Amira locked optics.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Ninja again. Aren't you tired of me? XD Here's chapter five.**

 **And here's some News. I plan to live stream my writing, just for fun. I got everything set up, and I plan to live stream a bit of me and Auto working on this story. If Auto's up to it. Also I wanted to thank a few of you peeps who helped me set up the live streaming thing a while back. So Thank you for that. I'm a dunce when it comes to technology. XD**

 **Next update: August 10th**

* * *

Amira had just finished packing when the sounds of her crystals swaying and clanking against each other in front of the door caught her attention. It almost made her drop the box in her servos, but she caught it in time to place it on the loveseat.

Amira prowled forward. She activated the doors security camera expecting the worse. Instead she got the yellow and black bot, Freefire, from the previous night.

An optic ridge cocked up, the femme promptly typed in the pass code, the door slid open and the two locked optics.

"Hello there, Freefire. I'm glad to see you but your timing could not be any worse."

Freefire smiled as he walked past Amira into the apartment. "How so? You kill somebody and are hiding the frame?" He let out a laugh as he glanced around the apartment. The place was a mess. Honestly, it looked like somebody had trashed the place. He frowned turning back to Amira. "Did something happen? You get robbed?"

Amira smirked. To lie or not to lie? The truth just might be better in this instance. "Well, you actually had it right the first time. But it wasn't just one person, per say, it's...complicated. But basically we have to leave right now because I may or may not have killed a high ranking gang member and now they're after me," Amira pressed her digits together, smiling nervously. "So there's that."

Freefire snorted before bursting out in laughter. "Oh Primus, you had me going there! Killing a gang member, and, oh geez." He shook his helm, trying to stifle his giggling. With a sigh, he threw himself onto the couch. He bounced a bit with a smile. "Soft."

Amira grumbled under her breath, setting to work shoving all the boxes into her subspace and other compartment bags. "Tell you what, we live to see tomorrow and you can have it-Tye! No no, drop that!" the femme yelped, dashing forward as the panther came sashaying out, a servo grasped firmly in his maw.

He let out a low rumble, ears pinned against his head and tail lashing as his optics landed on Freefire. The servo was dropped, the panther stalking forward towards the mech.

Freefire squeaked, jumping over the couch using it as between himself and the monster.

"Oh Primus, Tye! Stand down! Stupid cat," Amira muttered, watching Tye loop back around to grab the servo, settling by the counter to stare down the intruder.

Freefire peeked his helm out from behind the couch. "What the frag? Are you insane or something? Who keeps one of those… things, as a pet? NOBODY!" Freefire sighed slowly standing up. "I'm okay. I am okay." He mumbled to himself. "Well, while you were using your crazy fragging cat to slay bots, I got kicked out of Sentinel's palace place, and I'm stuck here. See, I didn't murder anybody. More than we can say about you."

"Not exactly something I do for fun," she grumbled, hopping up on one of the plush bar stools. Tye butted his helm against her leg, earning pets.

"So, Sentinel kicked you out. Why exactly did you come here and not go back to Kaon?"

Freefire let out an awkward chuckle. "Heh, well, I don't actually have official permission to pass through the Iaconian border, or the Kaonic border. I need to get back to Kaon, so help a buddy out." He smiled.

At this rate her cocked optic ridge would become permanent. "So you need to get back to Kaon and I need to get out of Iacon. I think we can make this work. I'll get you out of Iacon, in return for a place to crash until this gang mess is sorted out. Sound like a deal?"

Freefire looked at Amira, then to the giant beast she called a pet. "Uh, no. First of all, that … thing, can't stay with us. Secondly, a nice femme like you wouldn't last a joor in Kaon. You'd be picked off before we even made it to my place. Forget it."

Picked off? She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest and earning an indigent series of chirps and meows from Tye. "I could last! I'll have you as my personal guide and Tye as my bodyguard. He's very useful, you know. And as of this moment, I'm your only friend in Iacon, my dear. It may be a place full of nice bots, but hardly any of them will bend over backwards like I would to help someone out."

Freefire snorted. "It's not my choice if you could stay with me, and believe me when I tell you, my roomie will not move on the whole… beast, issue. And I am not the guiding type. Nobody in Kaon is. We're the stab you in the side and empty your subspace kind." Freefire sighed. "Leave the little monster, and maybe we could work something out though. And believe me when I tell you this, I am the ONLY Kaonian willing to even slightly bend a digit to help a stranger out."

"Freefire darling, I hardly consider ourselves strangers anymore," She tsked, relaxing against the counter. "I can't leave Tye, but I'm sure I can find a suitable hiding place for him in Kaon if your roommate is completely against him. Honestly though, Tye is such a sweetheart. It's hard not to love him."

Amira sighed, shaking her helm and glancing out the window. It offered a gorgeous view of the Iaconian skyline. "If we're leaving, we ought to get moving soon. My asset will only be free for so much longer."

Freefire sighed. "You drive a hard bargain." He stood up. "But I'll be leaving by myself. No deal. I'll find another way out. Darling." Freefire stalked over to the door. "Time to walk down all those slagging stairs I guess."

An unexpected, bellowing laughter burst forth from the femme. "You mean to tell me, you walked up all those stairs when the elevator was just down the hall? There's signs leading to it and everything!"

Freefire froze. His frame heated up with embarrassment as he turned to face the femme, his optics angled down. "That'd be great if I could read Iaconian. I'm going. Good luck with the whole murder thing."

"Oh for Alpha Trion's sake wait up. If you can't read Iaconian you're in trouble. You'll struggle trying to get yourself through the city and then probably end up right at the Enforcer's door. I can help you through and get you out of Iacon, quit being so stubborn.

"Tell you what, I'll even pay you to let me stay with you and your roommate for a bit. I can try and find a place for Tye, too. Just let me come with you to Kaon," Amira pleaded, jumping off the bar stool and moving over to the mech.

Freefire sighed. "Fine. One condition." He always wanted to try this. "Get on your servos and knees, and beg me."

"Tell you what, when we get to Kaon I'll do one better." Amira had dignity left and intended to keep it for a little while longer.

Freefire shook his helm. "Now. There's nothing better than a little begging. At least that's what I tell my clients anyways. The gladiators seem to enjoy it." He snickered. He was going to have fun.

Amira's armor subconsciously puffed up, the femme pursing her lips. Ew. Well you know what, if she was going to do this, she was doing it her way.

"Fine, fine."

In a single, fluid movement, she slid down the wall and to her knees, getting on her servos and crawling forward to press her lips against his shin. "Freefire, please, let me come with you to Kaon. I _beg_ of you, have a little mercy for a poor little femme."

Freefire hmm'd a bit, tapping his digit against his chin. "I guess I have no choice. Not if you beg like that. Fine."

"Thank you, m'lord." Amira pushed herself to her pedes, slipping forward.

And then proceeded to clock the mech in the shoulder. "For the record, that is a once in a lifetime thing. Next time there will be payment. Let's go. C'mon Tye baby." The femme sashayed down the hall, the panther brushing past Freefire with a low rumble and after the other.

Freefire sneered at his shoulder. He sighed as he quickly followed the femme. "Coral hits harder than you do. Where are we going?"

"Well then next time, I'll make it hurt. We're heading to Geardust. If our timing is right, it's in a lull stage right now and it'll only be ourselves and Brinelight," She stated, turning the corner and tapping the button for the elevator.

Freefire nervously shifted every time the elevator beeped, signaling it moving to the next the floor. He'd never been on one before. "Are these safe?" He glanced over to the femme. "They seem like a death trap."

"Yeah, I wouldn't put you in something I myself didn't think was safe," She stated absently while hooking up a leash to the collar she put on Tye. The final beep sounded, the doors parting to reveal an empty elevator. Perfect. "Alright, hop in," Amira chirped, striding in and pressing the button for lobby.

Freefire took a deep breath before slowly stepping into the small compartment. "I don't like this. I do not like this. I really don't like this!"

"Oh calm down, Freefire. It's not so bad," She hummed as the doors slid shut, the elevator descending quickly.

The chimes sounded each time they passed a floor, numbers ticking down rapidly.

Freefire groaned turning to the femme. "Seriously though. Find a place for that beast to go. I'm not getting murdered over it."

"Don't worry, I'll have it taken care of," She reassured, muttering the next part to herself, "Just may take a bit."

"That thing isn't so much as entering my building. Get it? Got it? Good." Freefire sighed. "I have a feeling I'm going to have my servos full with you. Also, if you get in trouble in Kaon, you're on your own. You won't last long as the smart aft you are now anyways."

A soft snort escaped from the femme. "So harsh on lil' me. I think I'll be fine. Now let's talk about your roommate. You said his name is Coral. He cute?"

Freefire's posture completely changed as he slowly turned to the femme. His servo smashed into the wall right beside her helm. His optics flashed with anger as he slowly brought his helm up to the femme. "When you arrive at my place. You will show Coral respect. You will treat him like you wish people treated you. You'll say please and thank you, and you'll keep your little sarcastic remarks to yourself. Do we have an understanding?"

The sudden change in demeanor caught Amira off guard, the femme instantly started pressing herself against the wall, rotor wings pressed against her back and optics wide. Tye yanked at the leash, hissing as he placed himself between the femme and the mech. She could barely hold the panther back, and gave a sharp nod in acknowledgement. "Y-Yes sir."

Freefire's optics softened and he sent the femme huge smile. Bringing his servo down, and backing away. "Great! So how are we getting to Kaon without all the documents and stuff? Are we gonna fly? OH or maybe we'll be like secret agents or something!"

The femme kept herself firmly placed against the wall, completely dumbfounded as Tye grudgingly settled back down. Was every Kaonian like this? Oh Primus, what had she gotten herself into.

She had just found her voice when they hit the lobby and the doors slid open, the femme bursting out and striding quickly out of the building. "Just, follow me and I'll explain when we get there."

Freefire smiled. "Okay!" He silently followed the femme, his smile gradually fading away. Was the femme that easily intimidated? Maybe her bark was worse than her bite after all. If that was all it had taken, then she was definitely not going to last long in Kaon. "Did I scare you back there?"

The femme was so busy watching bots around her and Tye's movements that she didn't register the question at first. "Hmm? Oh, no. Fear doesn't exist here. It's a fable like poverty in Iacon," She replied, a bit hesitant as she noticed someone duck into an alley in front of them and Tye suddenly begin to bristle. She darted to the other side of the street, and quickly went down another side road. They'd have to take the long way to Geardust.

Freefire struggled to keep up with the femme, his aching hip slowing him down quite a bit. "Hey wait up! Injured bot over here!"

Ugh, she really didn't want to slow down, not with possibly being followed. However she slowed up nonetheless, fidgeting restlessly. "It's just around this corner and five buildings down. We're going to use the back entrance. Then you can rest. Drink if you want too, I'll pay."

Freefire groaned. "Fine." He glanced down at his hip. "This is going to take forever to heal up at this rate."

A faint smile appeared momentarily on her lips. "Nah, I got that covered too. We gotta get there first, let's go, c'mon." She was off again, turning the corner and spotting the familiar building again. Home sweet home, she was going to miss that.

Freefire took a deep breath, sprinting after the femme. Every step causing his hip to send a spike of pain through his leg. "Suck it up, Freefire. You can do it! I think."

A brisk walk later and they had arrived.

"There, we're here!" She chimed, pulling out her card and swiping it. The door slid open, the femme all but tumbling inside in glee and relief. Amira looked around, a smile on her faceplates. "Brinelight!"

"Is that my little darling I hear?" a rough baritone voice chimed, the teal and pale green mech limped towards the pair.

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, I need a favor. This is my buddy, Freefire. He needs medical attention, a few drinks, and we both need a way outta Iacon. Slag hit the fan," She admitted, rather sheepish.

"Well, Freefire, pleasure to meet you. Follow me," he instructed, turning and heading off.

Freefire hissed in pain as he slowly limped after the mech. "I don't know what I did to deserve this. Oh wait. Yes I do. The prime. I did the prime to deserve this."

Amira frowned, shaking her helm. "Solarflare will get you fixed up in no time, don't worry about it. She'll have you in tip top condition and then we can get the pit outta here."

"I don't really need a medic. I need to go home. The faster the better! So can we skip the whole medic thing, and just let me complain? Please."

"She's going to be working on you the same time we're getting our way out of here so no time will be wasted. I have a plan, just sit back and relax until we get to Kaon. Okay?"

Freefire groaned. "Fine. Just… hurry, okay?"

Amira gave a soft chuckle. "You're in Iacon, in good servos. We got this."

Brinelight led them to a backroom with two tables, a few chairs, and a pole in the back corner. The femme eyed it, but decided against it.

For now anyways.

"I'll call in some favors promptly. Solarflare's already been notified and will be here promptly via medical groundbridge. Don't strain yourselves," the mech stated, exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

"Alright, why don't you sit down till she gets here?" Amira suggested.

Freefire shrugged. He jumped up, and sat on one of the tables, flipping over so he was on his chassis. "I'm just gonna lay here. Don't touch my aft. You can look though. I don't mind."

She giggled, optics darting over to momentarily glare over the other's frame.

Well, he had quite a nice aft, she'd give him that.

A moment later and a swirling blue vortex opened up in the room, a medium built, white, orange, red and yellow femme stepping out and glancing at the two with a tired smile. "Hello Amira. I'm guessing the mech on the table is the one I'll be helping today?"

"Yeah. Freefire, tell the nice femme where the mean bot hurt you," she jibbed.

Freefire rolled over. "Well first it was just my feelings. He said some mean things. Soon the mean things turned into other mean things and we fragged in a closet. I think he popped my hip out of place. Then we went back to his place and fragged some more. So there's just some general soreness… everywhere."

Cobalt blue met violet optics.

"I question your choice in bots you bring home, sometimes."

"Yeah, I know."

"Alright, so that hip joint needs to go into place and then I'll give you some painkillers and see what else is wrong with you. You want to be put on anesthesia?" Solarflare inquired, setting down her medical bag and looking over the mech.

Freefire stared at the femme, a stern expression in place. "No. You'll rob me or something. Just fix the joint, and that's it. Nothing else."

The medic looked concerned and perplexed. "Why would I do that?"

"Kaonic," Amira interrupted from her place on the pole she had migrated over to, doing lazy spins while Tye laid below.

"Ooh. Alright. This is going to hurt," Solarflare stated, placing a device on the table. It attached itself around Freefire's waist and lower thigh, gears spinning and whirring. "Are you ready?"

Freefire took a deep breath, stuffing part of his servo into mouth, sending a nod to the femme. This was going to hurt.

Solarflare shook her helm, still in disbelief that he had refused use anesthesia. The femme typed into the pad on the machine, then flipped a hatch. Giving one last look over, she made sure everything was securely fastened, and then pushed the button.

The machine shuddered to life, gave a whir, and then a swift tug, relocating the hip. A second later and a painkiller was injected into his system.

Freefire grunted at the sudden burst of pain. He bit into his servo, denting the plating. The throbbing pain lasted a few breems before it slowly dulled down to a tolerable level. He removed his servo from his mouth and sighed. "Yeah, that hurt."

"I still think you're crazy. Do you want me to fix all these dents too?" Solarflare asked, cocking an optic ridge. She could definitely tell this mech had quite a few run ins and was from Kaon. There were very, very few bots in Iacon who let themselves get this bad.

Freefire sat up with a snort. "Naw, its fine. They pop out eventually on their own." He turned to Amira. "Are we leaving yet?"

Solarflare frowned, but removed the machine from the mech and placed it back in her bag. "Very well. I'll give you some extra painkillers in case you need them. Amira, nice seeing you again." She walked up to Freefire dropping about ten vials into his servo. "I'll be going then. Try to stay out of trouble, would you?" With that, she had disappeared back through the groundbridge.

Amira sighed, sliding down the pole and landing on the ground. "When Brinelight comes back we'll be heading out of here."

Freefire stared at the small vials of pain reducers in his servo, he read the label and smirked. "I'll make a killing off these."

"It's really that bad in Kaon that you make a killing off of something as easy to get here as that?" the femme questioned, pressing her back against the pole as she sat down, stroking Tye's head as he put it in her lap.

Freefire sighed. "You really want to know how bad Kaon is?" Freefire huffed. "Alright. I'll tell you. Imagine the dumpiest place in Iacon. The poorest bot there. Take that bot, throw him in acid, and quickly pull him out. That corpse of a mech, almost zombie like in nature, is the only living beings you'll see until this whole thing 'blows over' or whatever you said. There's no honest jobs there. You're either a crook, criminal, or a gladiator. Either way, you'll end up dead."

Amira slumped forward, running a servo through her coils. "Of all the places on Cybertron, how in the world did you end up there?"

Freefire shrugged. "My creators. They ran a smuggling ring around Praxus. When I was a youngling they were caught and got the whole lot of us thrown in there. They said, 'bots like you don't deserve freedom.' and tossed us to the metaphorical pit. Also literal if you count the gladiatorial pits. That's what my creators did. They were a tag team. Beat the slag of everybody until they lost." Freefire sighed. "They were awful. Like I said the other orn. Kaon isn't so bad. I'll teach you. You'll learn."

She gave a slow nod, now mildly intrigued about Freefire. She knew there was no way she'd last in the Gladiator Pits, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he was going to teach her. "Alright, I'm trusting you on this," a tired smile was offered, the door sliding open as Brinelight walked in.

"Express will be here shortly, got you two tickets for a one way flight," The mech stated, holding up two tickets.

"Kaon, here we come."

Freefire smiled. "Home, here we come. I want to sale this scrap as soon as I can. I got cheated on my pay this time. Again."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: *Lots of apologizing for being late* Hey guys. It's Ninja. We got a little lazy and didn't finish the chapter before I went off to Comicon for the weekend, and then our beta went out of town. And to make things worse, Auto had some personal stuff come up that she can tell you about if she feels like it. but it's here now, so yes.**

 **Hello dearies I am not dead, just lurking about as one may I noticed I haven't been in the last few A/Ns. You can't get rid of me that easily~  
enjoy the peace as it lasts. ~Auto**

 _ **This chapter is un-beta'd. It's kinda raw.**_

 _ **Next Update: August 24th 2015  
**_

* * *

Amira glanced over the aircraft entering the port from a peek hole drilled into the large crate she was in. Brinelight never failed her, the mech having pulled some strings and got herself, Tye, and Freefire onto a supplies ship heading to Kaon to drop stuff off to the Gladiators.

Everything was going extraordinarily well so far, the crates loaded into a hull, the door shut, the shuttle took off and they were on their way. She immediately burst out with Tye, stretching with a yawn. The femme wasted no time exploring the crates and such.

Freefire climbed out of his own metal crate and immediately tucked himself away into the far corner of the cargo hold he and Amira now found themselves in. He had the perfect view of not only the entrance that the pilot would use to enter, but also the unloading hatch. His optics closely watched Amira as she walked around, examining some of the crates.

Amira was a weird one. She was supposedly from a civilized city, yet she murders a mech? It didn't make sense. One would think the femme would be in hysterics after murdering somebody, but she acted like it was a semi-normal occurrence. She could be hiding something. She may not be from Iacon at all. She may be an assassin, and simply had this getaway ride from the beginning. Sentinel could have hired her from the party to kill him as well. Freefire probably made the mech mad enough to want him dead anyways.

He couldn't count on Sentinel for credits anymore at least. He'd have to back to Gladiators. He'd get beaten up a bit, yeah, but they were the only bots guaranteed to pay a mech for their services, most of the time anyways.

Maybe that new Gladiator would be interested. What was his designation again?... "Megatronus." Freefire nodded to himself.

"What about a Megatronus?" Amira questioned, the femme stationed in front of a cage holding a gorgeous crystal stag of some sort.

Freefire jumped. "Did I say that out loud? My bad. I was just thinking about who I should hit up for a job when I get back. Sentinel will never hire me again after that hissy fit I threw." He sighed. "No chance in the pit."

The femme pursed her lips. "You never know. I've seen stranger things happen," she dismissed the concern with a shrug, sitting down and leaning against a crate, Tye curling up in as much of her lap as he could fit in.

"No, you see, strange was Sentinel thinking he's amazing. Impossible is him forgiving somebody." Freefire sighed. "I'll be dead soon. I just know it."

Amira gave a slow nod. Okay then. She wasn't going to question it further, and instead settled down for the ride as they would soon arrived in Kaon.

* * *

Freefire lead the primarily gray femme through the streets of Kaon. He knew exactly where he was going. He knew the path so well he could run it blindfolded. The small shop was the only of it's kind. The owner had "taken care" of all the other competition. Of course "taken care of" meant they were terminated and dumped in the city somewhere. Everybody knew it.

To get to the shop was pretty straight forward from where they had landed. They had to work their way through the black market area, but that wouldn't be too much of an issue. Of course Freefire was just hoping somebody would hack into Amira's subspace and maybe take some of her slag from her. Primus knew there wasn't room for it all in his apartment.

Freefire quickly made a sharp turn, leading Amira through a huge crowd of bots, all yelling out prices in the small auctions going on. He grabbed her servo to keep her from getting split up.

Amira glanced around, optics bright with curiosity. it reminded her just slightly of Iacon, except the Iaconian barters had..decent materials. She pouted slightly when the mech grabbed her servo and basically dragged her through the crowd, Tye jogging behind and causing bots to scatter upon noticing the big cat.

The two pushed their way through the crowd, and finally burst out into an alley. Freefire let go of Amira's hand, and continued forward.

A soft huff was given as he let her servo go, and she grudgingly followed him down the alley way.

Freefire exited the alley, and paused outside a run down building, and nodded to Amira. "Stay here. I have business inside. Don't talk to anybody. I mean anybody. Even if they look like the most innocent and nicest bot in the world. DO NOT TALK TO THEM." Freefire stared at Amira waiting for some sort of confirmation from the femme.

Amira waved dismissively. "Yes, yes. Stranger danger, I got it."

The femme couldn't really care less. She had Tye, nothing could happen to her. Kaon probably wasn't even as bad as Freefire said it was. Granted, upon first arriving and getting her first glimpse, the femme had wanted to turn tail and get the frag out of here. Everything was dirty, and quite frankly revolting. Now she had gotten use to it, if only barely.

Freefire rolled his optics. "I'll be right back."

Freefire stepped into the small store, energon cubes were stacked about. The inside looked more like a warehouse than a store. At the back, behind a counter, stood a big rough looking mech. He glared at Freefire before nodding for him to come up to the counter. "Long time no see, Fragger. Thought you were offline."

Freefire shrugged. "Not yet."

"Usual?" The mech grunted. "Or maybe you want your special?"

"Neither. I need two of your best cubes. No high grade, please. and one more of whatever is cheapest." Like pit he was going to spend his well earned credits on that crazy femme out there.

The mech nodded before going over to one of the high grade stacks. He picked out two cubes. He examined them both before walking over to another stack and grabbing a cube. He came back to the counter threw the cubes down and nodded at them. "Check 'em if you want."

Freefire shook his helm. "I trust you."

The mech nodded. "Pay up." Freefire passed his ID to the mech and waited for him check out his purchases. "You bring home a stray?"

"You can say that."

"Hope they don't kill ya."

"Me too." Freefire took back his ID and then sub-spaced the cubes. "thanks."

"Come again. Not like you have a choice."

Freefire smiled. "Guess I don't!"

* * *

Amira had grudgingly decided to adhere to Freefire's advice, and sat boredly outside the shop, elbow balancing on her knee and helm propped in her servo, the free one running lengths down Tye's back. The panther was curled up beside the femme, broad head on her thigh as narrowed optics watched Cybertronians glance over and sneer at the pair, or on occasion skitter away and into the depths of an alley.

Freefire silently walked out of the shop, half expecting the femme to have wandered off. To his surprise the femme was right where he left her. With a smirk, he crouched down next to the femme, careful not to make much noise, as to not give the femme any indication he was there. The cyber cat glared him, but he simply brought a digit up to his mouth. He let his face get mere inches away from the femme's. A small smile glossed over his face, as he gently blew a stream of air at the femme's audial.

Amira had been watching a femme scuffle with a mech about something or other when she felt Tye shift and tense, causing her to do the same. So when that stream of air hit her audial, she was up and ready to either bolt or throw a punch. It wasn't till she saw it was Freefire that she relaxed.

"You're a prick, I hope you know that," she grumbled, brushing off her armor.

Freefire's face lit up. "You should have seen your face! It was great. It's comparable to the first time Coral saw me after a night with the gladiators!"

Amira scowled, laying a servo on Tye's head who pushed up into it with a purr. "Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you terrified that poor mech. Ugh. Gladiators. Good for nothing killing machines who have the processor functions of a rabid turbo fox," the femme grumbled, glancing off down the road. "Shouldn't we get going?"

Freefire stared at the femme with worried optics. "Gladiators run this town. Be careful what you say, or gangs won't be the only thing you have to worry about." With a sigh, Freefire began walking. "Off to home then."

"They can't possibly be that involved in this dump of a city when they're too busy slaughtering each other," Amira grumbled under her breath, but trotted dutifully after the yellow mech.

Freefire smirked. "You ever been to the pits? It's quite nice. There's a shortcut through there to get to my apartments." Freefire took a quick right. "Right this way, Honored Guest."

Ooh Primus no. "Freefire-" she began to protest, she most definitely did not want to go there of all places, but if she slowed up, she'd lose the mech.

With her spark up in her throat and the pit of her tanks dropping to all time lows, Amira rushed to keep pace with the other, optics darting about nervously. "You know, I have absolutely no problem taking the long way around. We don't have to take this short cut right through hell."

"Nonsense! I'd hate to have your pampered legs walk so much. We'll cut ten breems off the journey by going this way! The gladiators will enjoy the company, and I can try to pull in some customers for later in the decaorn! Win Win." Freefire shot a huge smile to the femme. "Just relax."

She wasn't sure if it was just her but Amira could have sworn she heard someone scream 'shots fired' right after the other finished speaking. "Relax? Are you kidding me? We're practically waltzing right to our death and you seem entirely too happy about it. Don't they basically tear and try to kill anything that moves?"

Freefire burst out laughing. "First of all, Gladiators are LIVING BEINGS. Half of them don't even have a choice of whether or not they fight in the pits. In Kaon, they are of the lowest caste, yes, but they have bots respect. We may have it bad, but they have it even worse." Freefire wrapped an arm around Amira's shoulder. "And most are sadists, but I'll be undamned if it's not some of the most exciting interfacing you've ever had."

She still had major doubts about this whole ordeal, but with the Pits literally looming in front of them, it was too late to turn back now. Gnawing on her lip, she flinched when Freefire wrapped an arm around her. "Alright, I give in. We'll take this Primus forsaken short cut, but I swear, if any of them charge me, I'm setting Tye on them, sexual sadists who give a good frag or not."

"You'll love it! You might even make a few new friends." Freefire started stretching his arms. If this trip turned out like most of the others, he'll be getting a few new dents. He led the femme down a few more streets before he paused in front of a huge arena. A few bots hung around it. Most of them beggars who'd be offlining soon. "Welcome to the pits, Darling." Freefire smirked.

"Friends my shiny metal aft," the femme griped, shooting him a look. She soon turned her attention to the beggars around the entrance, and internally winced as she pulled Tye closer to her, who let out a warning hiss to those gathered to stay back and away. "Do we have to walk through them?" Amira whispered warily, eyeing the group. She didn't trust them one bit.

Freefire, completely ignoring Amira's optics full of pity, spotted the mech he was looking for. His optics locked on the target. A mech with broad shoulders stood by the entrance. His blue and seafoam paint scratched up, just the way Freefire liked it.

Freefire strutted over to the mech, consciously making his hips sway much more dramatically than socially acceptable. "Hey, Sweet spark, You come here often, or do you prefer to do that in my room?"

He saw Freefire approaching from quite a ways away. Honestly, the mech was bright yellow and his hips could probably double as a wrecking ball with how much he was swinging them. An optic ridge raised as he leaned against the wall, hips cocked out and arms folded over his chest, listening to Freefire's pick up line. Not bad, not bad.

"Oh my dear, you know I'm not solely limited to your room, not by a long shot. The cages are lovely this time of day, you know, and they're not in use till later tonight. Perhaps I can show you other places I come," he purred, winking as Amira stood awkwardly, looking between the two.

Freefire leaned onto the mech, placing a digit on his chassis, and slowly drawing small circles around it. "I suppose bad mechs belong in cages, don't they? Do you want a collar to go with it?"

The mech's lips transitioned from straight to a coy smirk smoothly as he bent down, faceplates a few mere inches from Freefire's. "I believe they do. I always have a spare collar, but I don't think we're going to make it down to the cages in time."

Freefire frowned. He was silently counting down, preparing himself for the force that was surely coming, by the look on this fine mech's face plates. "That's a shame. I really wanted to try you on."

"I'm sure you did, my dear," he purred, taking a servo and dragging a digit down the side of the yellow mech's jaw. He leaned down a little further, forehead inches from the other's as his optics glinted mischievously. "How bad you want it this time?"

Freefire's optics locked with other mechs. He leaned in, bringing their lip components closer. "I really want it."

The coy smirk turned into a dazzling grin, but the voice that spoke next was not the mech's.

"Good, because you're about to get it."

The shadows around the group moved, and from one of the corridors a black blur broke forth, startling Amira and causing her to backpedal against the wall, clutching her chest plates as Tye snarled, puffing up.

It launched forward, using the speed and momentum it gained to tackle poor Freefire to the ground.

The force of the tackle knocked Freefire's optics offline for a split astroklik as he hit the ground. "Shadow!" He wrapped his arms around the form above him and tried his hardest to push them femme over onto her back. "I learned a new move! See?"

Shadow Stalker grinned, wings and antennae perked until Freefire actually managed to flip the femme onto her back and proceeded to straddle her.

Classy as always.

"I see. Not bad, not bad at all. But-" she bunched her legs up, giving a buck and then quickly flipping him back onto the bottom as she now straddled him, grinning faceplates inches from his. "You still have a lot to learn before you're in my league, Sunshine."

Freefire smirked. "You sure know how to get a mech all riled up. Why don't you let me service you. You can try sitting on my face next time. or you can just move up here now." He sent the femme wink. "Aquarunner can join in too. It'll be a gladiator love fest."

"I think I'll pass," the sleek mech chuckled, having barely moved from his position leaning against the wall, the charming grin still plastered onto his face.

Shadow leaned down, taking her fangs and raking them warningly against Freefire's neck as she gave a nip at the wires. "Watch yourself playboy," she rumbled, pushing herself off the mech and glancing over to the femme pressed against the wall who looked like she was about ready to have a spark attack.

"Who's your friend?" the gladiator questioned, offering a servo to hoist the other up, "And why does she look about ready to offline?"

Freefire accepted the Servo, and grunted as his frame left the ground. His aft throbbed, and not in the good way. "Not a friend." He mumbled. "Definitely not a friend. She's a mid caste from Iacon, or I think she is. She might also be an assassin or something. I doubt it though after seeing her like this. She might just be a good actress though."

Freefire sighed. "Amira, come here, and try not to lubricate yourself."

Hmph. Iaconians. Shadow Stalker watched keenly as the other femme basically peeled herself away from the wall, her panther pressed tightly against her legs as she wobbled a few feet, then gathered herself and strutted over. A cocked optic ridge and a pointed look was given to Freefire. "Of your occupation, I assume."

Amira puffed up, rotor wings twitching. The other femme could at least be decent about it, seeing as she was no better off herself. "I am an Escort, thank you," she bristled, optic ridges furrowing.

Shadow had to restrain a snort. Definitely middle class. Entitled fraggers. "Escort, prostitute, same thing. My question is what the frag is someone like you doing in Kaon?" she asked, narrowing her optics and wrapping an arm against Aquarunner as he moved over to the femme's side, the mech flashing Freefire a wink.

Freefire slowly shimmied closer to the mech, resting his helm on the other's nice broad shoulders. "She killed a mech who supposedly was part of a gang, so she went running like a little glitch." He quickly perked up, covering his own mouth. His thoughts just kind of splurted out. "Shadow, you're a bad influence! I can't even hold my own thoughts in with you around. Or maybe the sight of Aquarunner just makes me stop thinking."

Shadow's optics drifted over the two mechs, a smirk flashing briefly on her features. "Or maybe it's the fact you think if you keep talking and being a suave, smug little fragger you'll finally end up with that threesome you've been wanting."

Amira felt like purging at these three. Absolutely zero manners, zero filters, everything Iaconian tradition said was not okay or taboo, they were doing. She was snapped out of her internal rant when Shadow addressed her.

"Okay First Class. You had the entirety of Cybertron to choose from, and you chose to come to Kaon, the worst city state on Cybertron, from Iacon, the best, most flashy, high class place ever next to Praxus. Did you think any of this through or did you just blindly panic like you did a few moments ago?" Shadow Stalker questioned, ice blue optics cold and narrowed.

The silver femme scowled, crossing her arms over her chestplates and looking away. "You have no right to interrogate me, I don't have to answer any of your questions."

With an unamused face, the black femme simply turned to Freefire for answers.

Freefire frowned. He liked Shadow Stalker, he really did, but not enough to let it slip that he was interfacing around with Sentinel. "A client of mine is in the smuggling business, and let's say things got a little freaky on the ship, I passed out, ended up in Iacon, got lost found her, and I needed help getting back to Coral. I don't know why she came with me, probably because it was her only way, but really, only she knows the answer to those questions."

Amira's optics narrowed. That wasn't what happened. Not by a long shot. She sent a questioning look to Freefire as she opened her mouth to correct the details of how they actually ended up here.

Freefire glared at the femme. "We should really go, Amira. I haven't seen Coral since we got back! Coral might be writhing in agony over how long I've been gone." He turned to Shadow Stalker. "You know how he is. Can't last too long without his trusty Freefire there."

A rare smile drifted over the primarily black femme's features, as she had promptly ignored the glare between the two. She knew well enough not to dig and pry. "Tell him I said hi, would you? You two ought to come visit more often since we can't ever get out of here," Shadow quipped, moving to give the mech a hug as soon as Aquarunner finished giving his. "Take care you fragger, and for the love of Primus don't do something stupid and die," she murmured, giving him a gentle thump on the back of the helm.

Freefire rolled his optics. "It's Kaon. Everything anybody does here is stupid." He flashed the femme and mech a smile before he walked over to Amira and gripped her servo, the femme instantly scowling as she was toted away. "Off we go!"

Shadow gave a snort of agreement, wrapping her arm around Aquarunner and giving him a nuzzle as they watched Amira and Freefire set off. "That poor mech's going to have his servos full with her and that little beast. I'm surprised they've made it this long," she murmured, the mech pressed into her side giving a nod of agreement as they turned and departed down the corridors.

Freefire pulled Amira out of the pits and back onto the streets. "You were going to tell! I can't believe you were going to tell! What is your problem?" He threw the femme's servo away from his in disgust. "Are you trying to make me the most hated bot in Kaon? or are you JUST that STUPID?"

Amira drew her servo against her chest, lips pursed. "I don't see what the big deal was. Or is it custom to lie to your friends' face in Kaon?" she snapped, optics narrowing.

"You don't have friends in Kaon. You have connections. And if those connections find out you frag around with Sentinel, they're likely to terminate you." Freefire sighed. "Sentinel is HATED here. You don't praise him. You talk slag about him, if you even talk about him at all. Got it?"

"You seemed to be pretty close with those 'connections' then," she grumbled, glancing over her shoulder. "It's not like I like Sentinel anyway. He's just a greedy little cyberweasel, exploiting bots whenever he needs a pede up on someone."

"Shadow and Aqua are gladiators. You make connections with them for trust and occasionally bodyguards." He smiled. "See, you're getting a hang of it, only next time, say, 'Sentinel is a fragging glitch who can't self service himself without a handmaid and two bodyguards to baby him just in case a monster does sneak out of his closet."

"Yeah, Gladiators have to make some real trust worthy bodyguards," Amira grumbled under her breath, arching an optic ridge at Freefire's spiel. "Uh, no. I'll stick with my explanation, thank you."

She looked up at the sky, frowning. "We should probably get moving. Wouldn't want to keep your Coral waiting for his 'trusty Freefire' now would we?"

Freefire shrugged. "Whatever. Home, here we come." Freefire turned away from the femme and started walking.

With a huff, Amira strode after the mech dutifully, rotor wings twitching in mild agitation.

* * *

Freefire stopped in front of a crumbling building. "Home sweet home."

The more of Kaon she saw the more she desperately missed Iacon.

Her optics drifted over the building, gnawing on her lip. "You live in a crumbling building. Is that even safe?"

Freefire pressed his servo over a small sensor on the door's control panel. The door slid open and Freefire led Amira inside. The Old crummy looking apartment was about as clean as Freefire had seen it.

A bad sign.

Some of stains on the walls were even gone. Coral must have done it. Or worse. Somebody could have snuck into the unit, terminated Coral and- No. He couldn't think of that. "C-Coral?"

No answer. Freefire felt his knees start to shake a bit. then The sound of sloshing liquid. The wash room. Coral was cleaning up. Freefire sighed. "Wash room." He turned to face Amira with a smile. "This is my home!" He sent a smile to the femme and pulled out the three cubes of energon, making sure to keep the good ones separate from the other.

Freefire looked around the place, making his way back into the living area. "It's decent. I mean it's high end. All the super good ones are taken by the gladiators, who wants to fight those guys for their apartments, am I right? Haha." He threw himself onto a beaten up couch that had obviously seen better vorns. He sighed before slowly shutting down his optics. A content smile creeping onto his face. Home. He missed it.

Freefire turned to Amira. "We'll have to install a security chip into your servo if you want access to the door." He hmmed in thought. "I wonder which guy we should take to you. Kaizer isn't too bad, but he's expensive. Krone is cheap, but you have to go back to him a few times to get the fragging thing to work properly." Freefire tsked. "Kaizer."

Amira could feel herself getting light headed. The city states were so much different and it was beginning to get to her. "Yeah, sure, Kaizer sounds great and I'll even pay for it if he does it right and the first time," she murmured, pressing a servo to her helm momentarily.

Freefire eyed Amira for a few moments. She wasn't going to last long. "Who's in there!" The yell echoed through the small apartment.

The melodic voice was much like Primus's own whispering into Freefire's audios. He brought a digit up to his mouth,signaling for Amira to shut up. He stood up, and in a deep voice he yelled, "Where's Freefire? He owes us credits! The Fragger run or something?" He turned to Amira, giggling silently to himself. Too distracted to notice the danger headed his way.

Coral, a Blue medium framed bot, came charging out of the wash room, fist cocked back. With little effort, he forced his fist through air, pegging Freefire on the back of the helm.

Freefire let out a cry of pain, as he flew through the air hitting the counter a little ways behind the couch. "Coral!" He gasped.

Coral stood in the center of the living room. His frame heaving with every breath he took, trying to cool his systems. "You fragger! Do you know how worried I was? Do you even care?" With a final sigh he slowly walked up to Freefire. "Seriously, this job of yours is getting to be too much."

Freefire glanced down at the ground. "Sorry."

Coral tsked, crouching down. "Let me see your helm. Did it hurt?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Coral closely examined Freefire's helm. "just a dent. You'll be fine." He cupped Freefire's helm in his servos, and brought their forehelms together. "Welcome home."

Freefire smiled. "I got cheated." Freefire jumped at the sudden pain on his helm. "Coral, you're squeezing! Ah! It hurts!"

"What do you mean you got cheated?"

"He didn't pay me as much as he promised!"

Coral released Freefire's helm. "That slag covered scrapheap of a fragger!"

Freefire sighed. "By the way, that's Amira, she's going to stay with us for a while."

Coral jumped, turning around to face the femme. "Primus! I'm so sorry you had to see that." Coral's pede flew out, kicking Freefire's helm.

"OW!"

"Why didn't you tell me she was there earlier!" Coral growled. His angry expression was quickly replaced with a smile as he glided over to Amira. "Hello, I'm Coral." He held out a servo for the femme. "I hope Freefire hasn't caused you any trouble. He's sweet, but can be a handful sometimes. I don't know why I put up with him."

"Cause you love me!" Freefire smiled, standing up.

"That's up for debate." Coral glanced back with a glare.

Amira giggled at the scene, enjoying the little show put on by the two. "Ah, he's been quite a help, don't worry darling. And you're the famous Coral then, Freefire's been talking about you this entire trip," she chuckled, taking the extended servo and giving it a gentle shake in greeting.

She was just opening her mouth to continue speaking when Tye waltzed in, the panther settling down next to Amira and looking up at Coral.

Coral's optics widened when the huge cat came in. His legs shook as he slowly backed away, reaching for anything he could to throw at the beast. Finally his servo landed on a small bust of some old forgotten being. He quickly pitched the statue forward, hoping to hit the mark.

Tye's optics tracked his every movement, the panther leaping up and moving back as the statue was pitched at him, an annoyed growl leaving the big cat's maw. Amira instantly became defensive, moving in front of her companion. "What was that for?!"

Freefire jumped up in front of Coral trying to get his attention. "It's okay, Coral. It's gonna be fine." He turned to Amira with a sneer. "I told you that beast doesn't come in here!"

The femme instantly retaliated, giving the other her own sneer. "You think I can tell him what to do? He's a companion, not a pet, he does what he pleases!"

Coral glared at Freefire. "OUT! All of you get out!"

Freefire jumped. "Coral, Come on. I didn't-"

"I said, get out! Get rid of that thing, and you can come back."

Amira was bristling by this point. Why was the mech so terrified of Tye? Not like he'd do anything to him besides nibble on his pedes when he was recharging. "Whatever. Come on Tye," she grumbled, turning and storming out of the apartment, Tye padding along right at her heels, purring softly as he butted her leg.

The femme reached down, giving him a few gentle strokes. Her spark was torn, she really didn't want to leave him with any bot. Maybe those Gladiators from earlier would take him in for a bit? It was her only shot, really. With a heavy spark, she set off back to the Pits and prayed she could find the couple again.

Freefire glanced back at Coral. He watched the mech slide down the wall. "I'm really sorry, Coral. I told her that thing couldn't stay here. I told her every chance I got."

Coral took at deep breath, tears starting to leak over his optics. "Just go take care of it. Dumbaft."

Freefire nodded. "Yeah, I will." He quickly turned running out of the apartment and after Amira.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey everybody. Not gonna lie, I Ninja forgot to update. XD College semester just started today for me and Auto started school again today, and it's been crazy.**

 **Auto: Sup lovelies? As a forewarning this chapter is kinda. Depressing. I broke my own heart writing it. Gather your tissues and be prepared to go on a feels trip.**

 **As usual constructive criticism is welcome!**

* * *

Freefire glided down the streets around the apartment. Amira had run off barely five breems ago. She couldn't have gotten far. What was she even mad about anyways? He told her over and over again that Coral was not going to let that beast into the unit. So what does she do? Bring the fragging thing inside! The she had the guts to get mad at Coral!

Freefire growled glancing down an alley. She wasn't there. He should just let her wander around Kaon. Maybe one of the street rats would teach her a lesson, and rough her up a bit. Freefire smirked at the thought. Iaconians were really stuck up. _Oh look at me and my giant fragging cat built from Unicron's left audial._ What an idiot.

Freefire finally stopped. He'd gone around the block a few times now. She wasn't there. "Hey." He grabbed a mech's arm pulling him from the crowd of bots. "You seen a femme? Grey, coils coming from her helm. Looks high caste."

The mech sneered. "Why would I tell you?"

Freefire rolled his optics. "I'm really not trying to start a fight right now. I simply want a little bit of information."

"Then you can simply frag yourself."

"I could, and do often." Freefire brought an arm around the mech and started walking with him. "You see that femme, she's a special one. She works for the Microns. She may not look like it, but she's their runner. You know what runners carry, don't you?"

"Enhancers." The mech smirked.

"Yeah, Enhancers. She's headed for her dropoff point. You help me get her, and I'll let you keep all the Enhancers she has."

"Deal." The mech pointed towards the gladiator pits. "She went that way. Follow me."

Freefire smirked. "Leave it to me."

A small mech peeked out from the alley way. A smirk crossing over his face. Enhancers huh? Brilt would love to hear about that. The mech quickly ran through the crowd, into a run down building. He quickly shoved his way through the crowd of mechs gathering around the bar. When finally got past them, he ran to the corner table. "Brilt!"

A huge green mech growled. "What?"

"I got some info. The Microns got a runner! She was headed towards the gladiator pit!"

"A runner?" The mech smirked. "They still got the enhancers?"

"Yes! There's two other mechs going after her!"

"A femme?" the mech scoffed. "Too easy. What's she look like? I expect you at least got that."

"Grey, coils from her helm. She supposed to look high caste."

"Supposed to? Did you not see her yourself?"

The small mech glanced around, his optics wide. "I, uh-"

"Shut up." Brilt growled. "Find me that femme!"

* * *

Amira strode rather too confidently down the streets, helm held high as Tye meandered by her side being the sweetheart he always was. It really hurt her spark to have to part with him.

She turned down an alley, seeing as the pits were just head. Perfect! Now if only she could find those two gladiators. What in the Allspark were their names again?

Before she could move forward, she felt vibrations in the air. Her optics widened as Tye began growling and puffing up, whipping his head around to look behind locked optics with those coming at them from the front.

"Hey there, little miss," a voice from behind purred darkly, the femme turning sideways so she could see both parties. Tye was bristling at this point, teeth bared and snapping, but Amira held onto the leash tightly.

"May I help you?" she questioned, unable to keep the edge off her voice.

"She's awfully jumpy for a runner, Merx," the mech who was advancing at her from the front snorted.

"A runner? I don't understand, I am not a runner," Amira stated, backing up towards the wall as she looked for an escape. Normally she'd just fly, but she couldn't leave Tye on his own.

"You filthy liar!" Merx shot forward, but paused just far enough away that Tye couldn't get to him.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about, please, just let me pass," she pleaded.

He moved closer to her, eyeing the femme up with a sneer. Tye lunged forward, snarling and snapping as he attempted to get at the offender. Amira jolted, quickly reeling in Tye's leash so he moved closer to her.

"Ugh. Kill her," the lavender mech stated with a wave of his servo,

"With pleasure, Harkbane," Merx chided, leaping forward and brandishing his axe the same time Amira dropped Tye's leash and let the panther at him.

With Merx busy with Tye, Harkbane stepped forward, golden optics narrowed dangerously as he loomed over Amira, who had taken a few steps back and brandished her bladed staff.

"What do you think you're going to do with that, femme?" he snorted, advancing forward as the femme continued to back up.

"Use it on you," she spat, glancing over to make sure Tye was okay. Any moment now and her panther would finish that rotten good for nothing up and assist her-

A servo landed against her cheek while she was distracted, sending her flying back into a wall.

Amira yelped, sliding down and holding her helm. Primus that hurt! Her optics drifted up, everything hazy. Her vision suddenly became crystal sharp as the next scene played out before her optics.

Tye leapt, but never made it to his target as Merx's axe imbedded itself in the panther's spine, the big cat let out a shriek that would haunt the femme for solar cycles to come.

Merx releasing the axe and the paralyzed, dying panther to the ground who was still shrieking and caterwauling in agony. Amira's optics widened, feeling tears rush to them.

Not Tye.

Not her baby.

A new rage took over the femme as she flew forward, slamming into Harkbane and scoring her staff across his abdomen, causing him to stumble back in surprise and press a servo to the bleeding gashes. She turned, optics ablaze with fury as she swiped at Merx, who leaped out of the way and dashed over to Harkbane, the two fleeing from the alley.

Amira's staff dropped back into her subspace as the femme numbly stumbled over to Tye, who was wailing in pain as Energon pooled around him.

His own Energon.

"I'm so sorry," Amira wailed, crouching over the panther, who meowed weakly in return, trying to lick her face. His helm was cradled against hers for a moment, before his optics offlined and he collapsed, frame turning a sickly gun metal grey.

It was then the femme broke down into a sobbing mess.

* * *

Freefire followed the mech through the streets. The gladiator pits got closer and closer. Finally the mech paused. He raised his servo up to his audial and frowned. "What?" Freefire sighed.

"She's on the other side of the pits now."

"Says who?"

"Does it matter?" The mech glared behind him.

Freefire rolled his optics. "No. As long they're sure it's her."

"I'm not going any further."

Freefire growled. "And why not? You want those Enhancers or not?"

"Not! Not if it means having to go up against that lousy gladiator!"

"We're not fighting gladiators." Freefire huffed. "We're finding femme."

"Yeah, tell that to your femme. She's the one over there trying to get terminated."

"You have got to be kidding me." Freefire groaned. "I wish she would have just listened! Ping me the coordinates." It only took an astroklik for the ping to come, and only a few more for Freefire to go running down the street.

Freefire slid to a stop his shoulders heaving as his fans attempted to cool his frame down. There she was. Amira was sitting in the center of the alley. Her back hunched over, and her frame shaking every few moments.

Did she get hurt? Freefire scoffed. It'd serve her right. Upsetting Coral, and then running off like she wasn't in the wrong. "You're going to go home, and apologize."

The femme didn't move. She didn't even act like she heard what he said. Freefire sneered, stepping closer. "Are you listening? Dumbaft! Coral's a wreck because of you and that stupid beast."

Amira's frame stopped shaking for a moment. Her engine rumbled as her helm slowly turned towards him, optics narrowed and alight with rage. "How about you shut your fragging mouth, you fragging _glitch_."

Freefire froze. What did she just say?

"Just shut up the frag up! This is your fault! All of it! Why'd it have to be you? Why'd it have to be _Kaon_? Why did I feel like I had to help your sorry aft?!" she snarled, her frame shaking in rage and fists clenched.

Freefire stomped closer to the femme. "Listen to me, you se-" His anger slowly subsided when he caught sight of her face. Tears glimmered in the limited amount of light in the alley. Her face was scrunched up, almost as if she was in pain. "Why are you crying? Why do you have any reason to cry?"

The femme growled. "Why don't you just shut your mouth! Just shut it for ten astrokliks! You're always talking and you don't care about anything! You don't even have anything important to say!"

Freefire growled. "I don't need to have anything important to say! I say what I want! When I want! You wanna know why? Because I didn't kill a gang member! I'm not the one on the run! You are!" Freefire ran over to the femme, grabbing her arm and pulling her up. "You should learn that. I'm the one who's teaching you how to survive! I'm the one risking everything I've built. So you can keep acting like a self-absorbed, unca-" Freefire stopped. The alley becoming deathly quiet.

There was no growling. No hissing.

Freefire glanced over to where Amira once sat. There.

On the ground laying on it's side, was the one thing Freefire least expected. Tye. "He's dead?"

Amira ripped her arm away from Freefire, shoving him away as she stumbled back over to the body of the big cat. "This is all your fault!"

Freefire growled. "If he's dead, you leave him there. You don't cry over him. Don't be stupid."

Amira's optics widened, the tears still streaming as she was hovering over Tye's body again. "How can you be so cold? Are you sure you're even cybertronian? Do you have respect for anything?"

"Respect? For what? I told you when we first arrived. This is Kaon. Cybertronians die here! We don't mourn them. There's no point! If we stop for a second, we're next."

"How can you even say that? He was a living creature! A _life_ was just lost! You don't have a spark! You're a monster!"

Freefire grabbed Amira's servo. "Let's go." He started pulling Amira away from the alley.

"No!" Amira started trying to pull her arm away from the mech's, thrashing wildly in his grasp. "Let go! Tye!" She planted her heels into the ground and started using her thrusters to pull away from Freefire, trying get back to the body of the only thing in life she had truly loved. "TYE!"

"No!" Freefire huffed as he tightened his grip on the femme. "I'm not letting go! I'm taking you home! You're going to apologize to Coral! And you're going to learn a lesson!" Freefire hefted the femme up, throwing her against a building.

Amira yelled out in pain when her back slammed into the side of the already half gone building. She allowed her helm to slump back, getting a perfect view of the sky. There was nothing but darkness, and an old spacebridge, half falling apart. "I hate you. I hate this. I just want my baby."

Freefire stepped over to the femme, crouching down. "I want to make one thing clear. This is nobody's fault but your own. I told you to leave Tye behind. I told you this would happen." Freefire turned around, still in a crouch. "Hop on."

Amira didn't make an effort to move, her dull optics remaining on the sky.

"I said, hop on."

"I can't leave him."

Freefire nodded, "Fine." He stood up, grabbing the femme by the waist and throwing her over his shoulder. "I'll just… carry you like… this."

She had begun to thrash and try to push herself off the mech, but had become entirely drained and void of emotion as she stared at the Energon pooling around the big cat. Her face buried itself into Freefire's back as the tears escalated into sobbing, the femme hanging limply over the shoulder of the other.

Freefire ignored the glaring looks he got from mechs as he shoved his way through the crowds. The femme was heavier than she looked. He roughly adjusted the femme, switching her to his other shoulder. She was a dead weight, good for nothing, mid-caste femme, who couldn't do anything for herself!

When Freefire finally made it back to his building, he was ready to shove the femme into one of the energon mines. Teach what real pain was. He shoved his servo onto the door scanner, impatiently waiting for the slagging door to open. When it did, he rushed in, throwing the femme onto the couch.

"Apologize."

Amira simply rolled over on the couch, staring at the wall. It was a few minutes since she had calmed herself relatively down, but as soon as she opened her mouth the sobs racked her body again, the femme curling up into the fetal position.

Freefire growled at the femme. "Stop crying! Just stop!" Finally the mech stomped his foot. "There is no point! What is that doing for you? Nothing! So just s-"

"Freefire!"

Freefire froze. Coral's voice was harsh, and demanding. He turned to the blue mech with a sneer. "Make it stop."

"What happened?"

"The thing died and she won't stop!" Freefire let out an aggravated sigh. "I don't know how to make it stop."

"Then leave." Coral eyed Freefire with sneer. "Come back when you're less frustrated."

"Fine." Freefire stomped out of the unit.

Coral turned his attention back to the femme. "Talk."

She tried. She really did try to form some sort of words, but all she could force out was some incoherent blubbering and eventually "My baby's gone," before returning to frame racking sobs.

Coral stared at the femme for a few moments, his optics softening, "I'm going to be honest. I have no sympathy." Coral pushed Amira's legs off the couch, and took a seat. "Everybody in Kaon has lost somebody, and if they haven't then they never had anybody to begin with. Freefire doesn't understand loss. He doesn't understand sentimental attachments." Coral glanced over to disgustingly high caste femme.

"I understand your loss. It must have hurt, but I hate those things so much I'm glad it's gone. I feel bad for you, sure, but that's it." Coral stood up. "From now on, this couch is your berth. I'm not giving up my office for you.

"You'll live here with Freefire and I, but you're going to work. I don't care how. You have a decaorn to start working. If you take any longer than that, you're out of here. I can't afford to pay your way. So toughen up quick, or Kaon is gonna crush you up and flatten your sweet little spark."

Amira listened quietly, trying to wipe away the tears that seemed intent on coming. She sniffled, choking momentarily on another sob. "Y-Yeah, okay. Whate-ever."

Coral stood up, sparing the femme one last glance. "Also, don't run off anymore. That was stupid."

The femme could only hiccup in agreement, instantly taking over the couch against and trying to burrow into it. "Tye…"

Coral walked over to the counter, grabbing one of the good cubes of Energon Freefire had left there earlier. He popped the top of the cube and started drinking. Ignoring the femme completely. "Freefire should have never brought you here."

* * *

It had been orns since 'the incident,' and Amira had still not moved from the couch. In fact, she was in the exact same position that Freefire dumped her in, still sniffling and sobbing at the slightest of triggers. Even saying so much as a whispered greeting had set her off into a sobbing fit that lasted for hours.

Coral walked out of his office, sending a glare to the femme. She hadn't even moved. Three more orns. Then she'd be out of his hair. He glanced over to the door, his gaze softening. Freefire hadn't been back either. That idiot. What was he even doing? "Hey, Freefire been in here?"

She could only offer a wheeze of acknowledgement that she heard the other and a pitiful head shake before being thrown back into a crying fit, her frame shaking as she tried to muffle it against the back of the old, musty, disgusting couch.

Coral sneered at the disgusting sight. His helm angled back to stare at the cieling. "Primus." He walked over to the couch, and sat down on the small table in front of the couch. He could already tell he'd have to treat this one like a child. "What do you want? What is it going to take to get you to stop this annoying fit you're having?"

Coral leaned back, a look of thought crossing his face. "You want some energon? maybe some high grade? Oh, how about revenge?" He laughed.

That did the trick.

All crying and sniffling ceased from the femme as her frame stilled to an almost eerie point. Her optics flashed momentarily as she glared at the back wall. "I want that fragger dead. I want his family dead. He took my most precious thing from me, now I want all of his."

Coral whistled. "Dearie me. Why don't you tell Coral who it was. I doubt he has family, but-" Coral stopped when the unit's door opened. Freefire calmly walked in, more dents and scratches than usual littering his frame. "Primus tell, what happened to you."

"I was working."

Coral stood up, completely dropping the topic with Amira. He jumped into Freefire's path, locking optics with the yellow mech. "Did you go back to the gladiators?"

Freefire simply stared at Coral, his helm angled down to the ground. "I need some energon."

Coral stepped aside, his fists clinched. "I told you no more."

Freefire ignored him. "What were you two talking about?" A smile spread across his face. "Were you two talking about little ol' me? Oh are we planning a threesome?"

Coral growled turning away from the mech, arms crossed.

Amira hiccuped, her wings twitching as she tried to still herself to speak. It didn't work, and she blubbered quietly for a few moments, frame sinking as she coughed. "Coral, tell him, please," she eventually forced out.

Coral glared at Freefire. "I'm not talking to him at the moment. You tell him. Grow up."

"That seems kinda hypocritical." Freefire smirked.

Coral glared at the mech, before he turned on his heel and walked into his office. The door snapping shut behind him.

Freefire glanced wearily over to Amira. The room was beginning to feel awkward. "I'm sorry." He sighed, leaning against the counter. "For throwing you into that building."

The femme was silent for a few moments, the feeling of her tears was beginning to get repulsive, but she couldn't stop them. "Freefire…"  
"I want you to kill the bastard who did that to my baby."

Freefire eyed the femme. "Why don't you do it? You're the one who murdered a bot anyways. Why not add another to the list? Stop dragging me into all this."

"I'll pay you the credits Sentinel stiffed you," she muttered bitterly. She had quite the stockpile of credits saved, anyway.

"You don't get it." Freefire shook his helm. "You can't just pay somebody and expect everything to be great. Kaon isn't all about credits. It's about survival." With a sigh, he pushed himself away from the counter. "Besides, I don't even know who did it. Tell you what though, you stop leaking those… things, on my couch, tell me who did it, and I'll do what I can."

This sounded like a fair enough deal. She pushed herself into a sitting position and moved so she was facing Freefire, wiping the last bit of tears away.

"His name was Merx."

Freefire closed his optics in thought. He knew that designation. From where though? The mines? No. A pleasure bot? No. Freefire smirked nodding his helm. "Oh yeah. He works under Brilt." Freefire nodded. "It could be two for one."

"Why don't you just get your little Gladiator couple to do it," she huffed, helm propped in a servo as she stared blandly at the floor. "They seem like they could."

Freefire stared at the femme. "They can't leave the pits. They're slaves. There's two types of Gladiators. The lower level ones, who just fight to fight, and the ones who were forced into it. The ones that are forced into it can't leave. They're there till they offline. The lower level ones work gig to gig. Do what they want."

Freefire shrugged. "Besides, I can handle this. Merx and Brilt are small fry. I just have to talk to Boss and makes sure he understands the circumstances then go out for the hunt."

"Boss? Of course you're in a gang. Everyone in this fragging pit must be," she huffed, shaking her helm.

Freefire snorted. "Not that simple. Boss controls the area we're living in. We don't have enforcers so we use a nice… " Freefire smirked, "insurance method. We pay the leaders of whoever controls the area you live in, and in exchange they offer you protection. It's the closest form of enforcing we have. Kaon does have some sort of order after all."

"Yeah, order all right," she sighed, rotor wings drooped as she curled back up on the couch. "Just make him pay."

Freefire's lip components pursed. "I am not a tool you can just order around." He groaned allowing his helm to hit the counter. "The least you can do is show some form of gratitude. Maybe even show a bit of respect. I'm only bending over backwards to help you. Coral's angry at me. and NOTHING is going how it should."

Amira pursed her lips, resting her helm on the arm of the couch as she took in a shaky sigh. "I am very thankful, Freefire. I...I'll work on respecting you two. I'd be dead by now otherwise."

Freefire sighed. He wasn't expecting that. "Also you can at least tell Coral not to be mad at me too, And buy lots of high grade for me. Also I have spot on my spike if you wanna take a look at that."

A dirty look was given to the, well, dirty minded mech. "You can have Coral look at that spot, I've sure he has much more knowledge of that problem than I do. We'll see about everything else."

"Hmm." Firefire walked over to his and Coral's room, typed in a code and waited for a few moments. The door opened, and he stepped inside. He went directing to the corner storage compartment and typed in another code. The doors clicked, and Freefire pulled them open. The compartment was full, wall to wall with guns. Sniper rifles, shot guns, small pistols, grenades, sticky grenades, and even a few E. . He grabbed two pistols, and twirled them on his digits before shoving them into the compartments on his thighs.

He shut the compartment doors and exited his room. A smile was sent to Amira. "Time to go hunting!"

She glanced up, offering a forced, tired smile. "Good luck."

"Don't need luck. I got guns."

* * *

Freefire patiently waited at the bar. If Boss was going to show up, he had better hurry. Freefire didn't have all decaorn. "Freefire, I'm guessing."

Freefire glanced up, and nodded to the huge mech. Jayx, local gang boss, Nicknamed, Boss. He ran the southern region of Kaon, if you wanted anything, or were going to do anything in the southern region, you went through him. "Boss, good to see you."

"What do you want? I'm busy."

"I was just informing you, that I'm going on a hunt."

The mech's optic ridge cocked up. "A hunt?"

Freefire smiled. "Yes. I plan to hunt down a mech, and terminate him. Honestly, If I had the choice I wouldn't be doing this, but you know, honor, and optic for an optic."

Jayx nodded. "What do you want from me then?"

"Well, maybe if you could, you know, let the other bosses know,

"Fine." Jayx nodded. "Consider it done. Have a good hunt."

Freefire smiled. "Of course I will."

PG

Freefire walked into the bar, giving a quick once over the place. Plenty of pleasure bots littered the room, each trying their hardest to lure in mechs. He could play the part of pleasure bot, and lure the cause of all his current problems to a bit of a quieter place, or he could shoot the mech here, and get it over with. Hmm. He'd have to find the guy first.

Freefire stepped up to the bar, and motioned for the bartender to make his way to him. Slowly but surely the mech worked his way through customers and finally stopped in front of Freefire. "What?"

"Looking for a mech called Brilt. Big. Green."

"Over there." The mech pointed to the far corner. "If you're gonna fight, take it outside."

"I'll do my best." Freefire turned away from the bar, pushing his way through mechs, violently shoving with necessary. Finally he burst through the crowd, and made a b-line for the aforementioned table.

The green mech was sitting at the table with a group of mechs. He had a smug look on his face, probably telling a story to make himself look "cool" or "so tough". Freefire huffed, stepping up to the table. "Hey."

The Green mech grunted, locking his glaring optics with Freefire's "What?"

"You Brilt?"

"Yeah."

Freefire shook his helm. "You know, there's a femme at my place that won't shut the frag up. It's getting pretty obnoxious."

"What the pit do you want me to do about it?"

Freefire smiled. "Glad you asked! Preferably, you could die. At least that's what she thinks you should do. I thought you deserved better than just me running up to you and shooting your face, so I figured I could at least give you a reason first."

Brilt slowly stood up, optics never leaving Freefire's. Was this guy trying to intimidate him? Freefire frowned, when the mech seemingly just kept rising out of his seat. Ok, he was kind of intimidated. "I don't think I heard you right."

Freefire smiled. "I'm going to take you outside and shoot you. I did say face, but I mean, it doesn't have to be the face. I'll let you-"

Brilt's fist hit Freefire's jaw, with so much force, he felt his pedes rise off the floor as his frame ascended into the air. He thought about pretending to be knocked out, but that wouldn't be any good for his reputation, which was already pretty bad. His frame hit the ground and slide backwards, ramming into a table.

"Do you know who I am?" Brilt screamed, stomping over to Freefire's frame. "I am Brilt! 5th gladiator of the Crine Rings!"

Oh boy, a third rate gladiator. Who would be proud of that?

Freefire sat up with a grunt. "I promised the bartender not to fight inside."

"Too bad." Brilt grabbed the sides of Freefire's chassis and lifted him up to eye level.

Freefire's pedes dangled above the ground awkwardly. This mech was really big. "I think it'd be a good idea to not go against the bartenders wishes."

Brilt snorted. "Oh really? Does the youngling think he should follow the 'rules'? You're in kaon. There a-"

"Don't say it." Freefire shook his helm. "There's rules for Kaon. You know them, and I know them, even they know them." Freefire gestured to the large group of mechs watching their dispute. "So, why don't you carry me outside, and we can fight there."

"I'm not your servant." Brilt threw Freefire onto the ground. "I'm not carrying you anywhere."

Freefire stood up with a nod. "That's fine. That's fine. Lead the way."

Brilt snorted as he turned away from Freefire. Freefire sighed as he opened the compartments on his outer thighs. Two pistols folding out ready for action. Freefire smiled. "You know, now that I think about it. I don't remember a rule of Kaon to be, listen to the bartender."

Before Brilt could turn around, Freefire Aimed a pistol, and released a shot. Brilt's frame stood upright for a while, before tittering a bit, and finally falling onto the ground, face first. Freefire slowly walked up to the frame, and whistled at the smoking hole in the back of the mech's helm. "I'm not cleaning this up."

Freefire glanced up at one of the trembling bots. "Hey, you, come here."

The mech shook his helm. Freefire sighed. "If I was going to shoot you, I'd shoot already. Come here."

The mech slowly shuffled forward. Freefire motioned for him to crouch down next to him. When the mech did, Freefire sent a smile his way, "I'm looking for Merx."

The mech's optics widened. "I- I don't know 'em!"

"I wanted to thank him."

"What? I didn't do anything for you?" He frowned. "Did I?"

"Sure you did! You killed that beast right?"

The mech's optics lit up. "Yeah, I did!"

Freefire stood up, frown firmly in place. "It caused me a lot of trouble, that thing. It also caused a lot of problems when it died." He slowly raised a pistol and aimed at the mech's chassis. "Why'd you have to go and do that?" Freefire pulled the trigger, watching the trembling mech scream out in pain, and fall to the ground.

"That's it! Out!" The bartender pushed through the crowd, grabbing the back of Freefire's neck. "I told you no fighting!"

Freefire felt his frame fly through the air as he landed face first on the ground outside the bar. "Ow!"


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Hey lovelies! It's Auto this time bringing you your chapterly author's note. We apologize for the lateness, school has started for both of us and it's hard finding time to write. Our next update will be September 21st!

* * *

Freefire shook his helm as he watched Amira try to seduce a mech. Her vague innuendos and classy speech getting her nowhere. With a sigh he leaned up against the wall. They'd been doing this for joors. He would have just sent the femme out on her own, but when Coral had grown tired of Amira's "constant excuses for being lazy, and refusing to pull her own weight." He had kicked Freefire out with her. Freefire had tried to object, but Coral had only yelled, "Just find her a fragging job!"

As if it was that easy.

The femme was so stuck in her own ways she was ignoring every tip Freefire had given her. Because of this, the femme was striking out on even the easiest of mechs. She was getting anywhere.

"Oh look, you're not dead."

Freefire glanced up at the new arrival. His lip components pursed into a straight line.

The stark gray mech had a huge smile. His small deceitful stature hiding his violent and disgusting personality. "Ready for round two? I can take you to a nice quiet place and beat you until you can't hold back those beautiful screams anymore. Maybe if you scream loud enough I'll stop, or maybe I'll just keep going."

A shiver shot through Freefire's spinal strut, his sensory nodes buzzed with the memory of the paralyzingly pain and agony. "N-no thanks."

The mech stepped closer. His servo shot out, and gripped Freefire's jaw. "Come on, we haven't had fun in a while."

Freefire's optics flew open as wide as they could go at the pain of his jaw slowly being crushed shot through his frame. He immediately drew his pistol, jamming the barrel under the other mechs chin. "Release me, Cobalt."

The mech smirked, slowly releasing the pressure from Freefire's jaw. He raised his servos up. "Okay, I get it. Not today. Not low on the credits yet, but remember you'll always come crawling back."

Cobalt smirked as his servos dropped down, and he backed away. "See ya around!" He laughed as he walked away.

Freefire slowly put away his pistol. He could only hope he never saw Cobalt again. The mech was bad news. He ran around beating pleasure bots to near termination then just left them. Most did end up offlining, but the ones Cobalt was really interested in were the ones that survived. The survivors became regular targets for the mech's sick perversions. No amount of credits was worth it.

Freefire took a deep intake, turning his attention back to Amira. Hopefully she didn't see that.

Trying to slide back into work without Tye was difficult. The femme could barely keep her processor in the game, and it didn't help that automatic turn ons in Iacon seemed to fly right over the helms of these street slummers. Amira had struck out yet again and turned just in time to watch a mech walk away from a rather perturbed looking Freefire. Cocking an optic ridge, she turned slowly, placing her hands on her hips and smoothly putting all of her weight on one side. "What was that all about?" she questioned.

Freefire smiled, pushing himself off the wall. "Ah, nothing! Just getting hit up for a job, but honestly, I can't leave you by yourself! You'd just get turned down so many times your poor spark might give up on you." He stuck out a golassa at the femme.

Her rotor wings twitched, whether in annoyance or frustration, one would know not. "Looks like quite a scary job," she snarked in returned, shaking her helm. "As it is, obviously I'm not doing too well. Kaonics and their narrowed mindedness."

Freefire smirked, happy that the femme had decided not to ask any more questions. "I told you before we started. You're Iaconian scrap isn't going to work. Not here. Being abstract or shady won't work. Just come out and say, 'let's frag. Pay me well and I'll do whatever you want.', or something like that anyways."

Her smirk quickly turned into a frown, a sharp vent escaping from her. "It just feels so wrong to ask like that, though. You always had to be suave and tactful in Iacon," she mused, violet optics drifting up as another straggler came wobbling down the alley the two had currently set up shop in.

"And another problem, I don't even have this blasted city memorized yet. The only landmark I can get to is those Primus forsaken Gladiator Pits."

Freefire sighed, leaning back up against the wall. "No point in memorizing anything around here. It all changes so often, as soon as you find something it'll be gone. You only need general directions. Go to the gladiatorial pits. The entrance with all the slave gladiators is the western entrance. Everything west of that is the district where we live. You go to another district and the rules will be different."

Freefire huffed, almost sure the femme wouldn't understand the bulk of what he had just said, but he really didn't want to go into anymore detail than that. "long story short, Don't bother going anywhere outside the west district."

If Cybertronians could pale, Amira probably would have. There were so many different types of Gladiators, invisible castes, gangs, and Primus knows what else. "Which gladiators are the slave gladiators?" she asked, rather sheepishly.

Freefire sent Amira a blank face. Really? "The ones that can't leave the pits. Anyways. Keep trying. Get fragged. Then we can go home."

Amira made a few disgruntled and vague gestures, eventually just giving up with a dramatic sigh. She'd figure out which were the ones who couldn't leave later. Her optics drifted back to the either drunk or high mech continuously stumbling towards the pair, and gave in with a few irritated rotor twitches.

Attempt number whatever the frag she was on now.

The femme slid forward, blocking the mech's path as she pressed up against him. This was so uncomfortable.

"Hey there, pretty boy. You look like you could use a companion for the night," she purred, running a slim, clawed digit down his chest.

The mech swayed a bit, almost tipping over from the slight nudge the femme gave him. "I don... " He tried to regain his balance, and ended up leaning on a wall. "I ain't got no need fer a companion!" His words slurred together, much like his vision was. The femme was starting to blur into a gray blob.

Freefire snorted. He quickly covered his mouth to stifle the giggles that were threatening to fill the alley.

Amira could hear those giggles, and having to hear them for the entire night was starting to get on her nerves. Just a little bit. If anything, this time they motivated her to work harder at those credits.

"Oh, don't lie to yourself. You need me tonight as much as I need you for a good frag. Anything you're up for, and I'll do it," she murmured softly, voice going into her deep, alluring purr she used like a siren to lure in customers in Iacon. Hopefully Kaon would at least work the same way in this field.

The mech slowly slid down the wall. "Whaa? Ah can… Ah can't hear ya!" He slowly fell onto his side. His optics flashed for a few moments before they offlined.

Amira shot back as soon as he went down, servos thrown up in the air. "What the-? Is that normal?!"

Freefire's optics widened. "Is he offline?"

"Do I _look_ like a medic to you?" the femme practically yelped.

Freefire snorted before he burst out laughing. "Your horrible flirting killed him!"

"Ah ain't dead!" The mech's servo flew up, smacking into the wall before bouncing off and hitting the ground again.

Freefire only started laughing harder.

The femme shook her helm, pressing her servos to her face. "I literally cannot with Kaon anymore. Why? Why aren't there any good, normal bots here? Or are you all drunkards, thieves, hookers, gladiators, and gang members?"

Freefire went silent. "How easy do you think it is to find a real job here? You either start mining energon and die in a few orns or you find some other way to earn credits. Now find another mech and try again."

Amira huffed, tilting her helm back towards the sky. "Fine, fine. I'm going." The femme brushed off an invisible speck of dirt, and started off down another alley that would hopefully lead to some credits. At this rate, she'd be kicked out of Freefire and Coral's apartment within the decacycle.

* * *

A gray mech, leaning just outside the alley, smirked. That femme was with Freefire. He pushed himself off the wall, and followed the femme from a distance.

The grey and purple femme continued down the alley, her purple biolights illuminated the crumbling buildings as she walked. Pausing momentarily, she was suddenly aware of footsteps behind her and froze, rotor wings twitching. Amira turned, violet optics bright as she glanced down the alley. One of two things could be happening. Her paranoia about Kaon was getting to her, or there was actually someone there.

She gnawed on her lip momentarily, before continuing forward at a much quicker pace.

The gray mech smirked. "Oi! Femme! I just want to talk."

Oh. There really was someone behind her. Somehow the paranoia thought was much more reassuring. Amira slowed to a stop, allowing the other to catch up. "Yes?"

The mech sent the femme a kind smile. "You were with Freefire back there? You his protégé or something?"

She gave a nod, offering a smile, although a bit forced, in return. "Yeah, Freefire is teaching me the way Kaon works compared to Iacon. They are.. very different in nature, I must say."

The mech smirked. "Iacon, huh? What got you sent here?" The mech noted the forced smile. She was uncomfortable. Good.

Something in the back of her mind was screaming for her to shut up and run, but she shoved it down incase she could turn this into a sale. Then at least she could tell Freefire she had managed to get one. "Ah, run in with the wrong bots," she admitted quietly with a shrug. Half truths were good, right?

"Ohh, and how did you meet Freefire? I'm a friend. Concerned friend really. He doesn't have many bots around him, so when a new one shows up, I get a bit worried." The mech stepped forward. "So what's your relationship with him?"

Amira was now definitely on edge, but tried not to show it. She took a step back for every one he took forward, and began eyeing possible escape routes. "He was at a party at the bar I work, well, worked at. I bought him a drink and we started talking, just friends," she stated, fighting to keep the stutter out of her voice. Frag. Why'd she have to wander off?

The mech noticed the femme backing away. He stopped, raising his servos in a surrendering fashion. "I'm not here to hurt you. Just wanted to see if you were up for a job. A pal of mine said Freefire was teaching a new femme. Wanted to check her out."

Oh. Maybe she was being paranoid. She was getting a job after all. Amira calmed, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "Ah. Yes, I'd be her, and I'm up for a job. What are we talking pay wise, hmm?"

The mech's helm fell to the side. "That depends on the show you put on, now doesn't it?"

Before she could stop it, a cocky smile forced its way onto her lips. "Hun, you're talking to one of Iacon's most requested escorts and pole dancers. I can put on any kind of show you'd like."

The mech smirked. "Really?" His optics shone with excitement. "Any?"

There was that little voice screaming in the back of her helm again. She promptly ignored it, yet again, and gave a subtle, confirming nod.

The mech laughed and brought his servo up to shake the femme's servo. "Cobalt."

She took the mech's servo, giving it a shake in reply. "Amira, pleasure to meet you."

The mech's smile immediately fell as he fist reeled back and slammed into the femme's face. "The pleasure is all mine!"

Well, she had definitely not seen that coming. Amira let out a yelp, feeling her nose crumple and energon gush down her faceplates. She instinctively ducked down and rolled away, standing up again and pressing a digit tenderly to her nose. The femme's lip curled up in disgust and pain. Knowing she was certainly in trouble, she made a reach for her subspace, hoping to grab her staff and fend the mech off.

Cobalt grabbed the femme's servos, pulling them up above the femme's helm. "What's wrong? Are you not enjoying this?" a sickening smirk crossed his faceplates. "Cause I'm having a wonderful time." He lifted the femme up by her arms and slammed her against the wall of the alley. "Just think of the pay you'll get… if you survive."

Amira didn't even have time to process the sudden movements, making her light headed, and then the pain of her impact against the wall flooded her systems. Her vision swarmed as she feverishly tried to reboot her system, shaking her helm and instantly regretting it.

With a surge a strength, she pushed back against the mech, denta bared in a snarl.

Cobalt stumbled back, quickly gaining his balance. "You wanted a job. Did you not? So, why fight? Let me have my fun! Freefire did!"

"I'm-" Why was it so hard to think straight? Her helm was absolutely swarming at this point, having to use the wall to support herself. "I'm not.. Freefire! This isn't a..job..it's.." What was it? She wasn't sure. But Amira knew this was not the kind of work she got involved in. "It's not..my job. F-frag off!"

Cobalt growled. "Your job is to bring me pleasure! So pleasure me!" He stomped forward, punching the femme in the abdomen. "Or I'll just pleasure myself without paying you!"

She cried out and doubled over, clutching her gut with one arm as she used the other to prop herself up. Her claws dug into the ground, the femme dry heaving as she tried to push herself back up.

"Go on! Tell me! Which one? You have a choice here. You want the credits, or not." The mech pulled out a small knife. "I'd take the credits."

Amira had managed to roll over, and curl up against the wall as she clutched her abdomen, wheezing. "C-Credits," she managed to choke out, optics shutting tightly. "I'll take..the credits…"

A soft clicking sound echoed through the alley. Cobalt paused, glancing over his shoulder. Freefire stood over the mech, blaster aimed at the mech's helm. "What are you doing?"

Cobalt smirked. "I'm getting pleasured."

Freefire growled. "Go back to your sick little corner. Pick on some other pleasure bot."

"Well I tried, and you turned me down." Cobalt smirked as he stood up. "Unless you changed your mind, I'll just continue here."

Freefire glanced at Amira. "You're an idiot. Go tell Coral I'll be back later."

"Freefire-" whatever argument the femme was going to conjure up was silenced as she pressed a servo to her helm, wincing. "Okay," she muttered in defeat, inching up the wall until she was standing, then moved off.

Freefire sighed as the femme limped away. He sub-spaced his blaster and nodded to the other mech. "The usual spot then?"

* * *

Amira pressed her palm to the scanner of the Apartment, scowling as the door opened and she marched inside. Her head still absolutely throbbed, as well as her gut, but she had to find one mech in particular.

"Coral!"

Coral's office door swished open as he peeked out. A pointed glare signaled all it needed to. He was _trying_ to work. "What?"

"Freefire told me to tell you-" wait, what did he want her to tell the other? She couldn't remember now. "He...Cobalt."

She hoped that explained itself.

Coral's optics flashed, and he slowly walked towards the femme. His optics narrowed into a glare. "What did you just say?"

"Freefire's with Cobalt," she stated, rather shakily as a subconscious step back was taken with his advance towards her.

Coral let out a gravelly growl. He grabbed the femme's arm, and pushed her towards the door. "Take me to where you left him!"

Amira stumbled back and made haste towards the door. The femme had learned better than to question or disobey Coral in her time here. He was rather terrifying at times.

She opened the door, stepped outside, and practically left in a dead on, wobbly sprint towards her last location.

Coral chased after the femme. He had only hoped the femme was wrong. If this was THE Cobalt, Freefire was probably long gone; his frame thrown somewhere to find orns later. "Hurry!"

"Unless you happen to be a flier we can't go faster," she snapped. That did, however, give her an idea. The femme slid around a corner, glancing about at the labyrinth of alleys before her. "How many choppers have gotten shot down in Kaonic air space?"

"None that I know of, but I don't know about anything outside the western district." Coral huffed as his frame worked overdrive chasing the femme. He wasn't used to running. Freefire was the one who ran the streets like a common peasant.

"Well, in that case," Amira leaped into the air, her transformation swift and elegant. The sleek chopper rose, nose tilted down as she took off, scanning the roads and alleys for Freefire. She could tell she was flying just a bit crookedly from her head injury, and hoped it righted itself out eventually.

Coral growled as the femme flew off without him. The frag was she thinking? Running off without him? "Idiot!"

She paid little to no attention to Coral, she was focused on finding a very bright yellow b-there! The chopper slowed down, hovering a bit away from Freefire's location to try and avoid detection from Cobalt. Coral had better hurry.

Coral watched Amira stop to a hover. Had she found Freefire? (Fuck this sentence.) He ran through the alley's trying to find the one Amira was hovering over. He slid to a stop his optics flashing bright when the landed on Cobalt, repeatedly kicking Freefire's already beaten frame. "OI!" His voice echoed through the alley.

Cobalt's leg froze mid kick. His helm slowly turned to face the intruder. His smile was large. "What the frag do you want?"

Freefire slowly sat up. "Coral…"

The chopper slowly descended, before transforming back into Amira. She placed herself behind Coral, and subspaced her staff, just in case she had to fight. The femme really hoped the other could handle it, though. Confidence in her fighting skills was something she did not have.

"Freefire, stand up. Stop letting this idiot use you as a fragging punching bag." Coral huffed.

Cobalt growled when Freefire went to get up, kicking him back down. "This is mine! I bought him."

Coral stepped up to the mech, and sent a sweet smile. "I manage the gladiator pits. I can release over a hundred slaves onto the city for manhunt. You have a choice. Remove your pede from my property, or I'll have the gladiators remove your helm from your frame." The sweet voice echoed around the alley, bouncing off the walls.

The two mechs locked optics. Neither moved. Neither wanted to lose this fight. Cobalt smirked. "You can't own a bot, unless you buy 'em."

Coral growled. "You can't buy a bot. You control them with fear and manipulation. You're playing a dangerous game. A game wouldn't want to play if I were you. Remove your pede."

Cobalt removed his pede, stepping closer to Coral. "Did that femme come running to you? You have her wrapped around your digit too?"

Amira flinched at the words, her optics being cast down to the ground as she shrunk back.

"Freefire, stand up. We're leaving."

Freefire scrambled to his pedes, rushing over to Coral. "Yeah."

The femme glanced wearily between the three mechs, slowly subspacing her staff and waiting for the first move to be made.

Coral wrapped Freefire's arm around his shoulders, giving him something to lean onto. "You're an idiot." He growled into the mech's audial.

Freefire smiled, reaching into his subspace. "An idiot with pain meds." He pulled out a few vials, tossing one over to Amira with a stupid grin on his face.

Amira's optics flashed as her servo snaked out, snatching the vial thrown to her and looking over it with a small smile. "Surprised you didn't sell these off yet," she quipped, trying to lighten the mood just a bit. It would definitely be used later.

Freefire grunted. "I haven't had the time. Too busy watching you, you pain in the aft."

The femme gave a playful shrug. "It's not like I try, just sorta happens."


End file.
